Veteran center David Krejci indicated after the playoffs that he’d take some time to think about his future. While he hasn’t made a final decision about retiring yet, he told Dominik Dubovci of hokej.cz that when the puck drops on the 2023-24 campaign, he will not be playing, either in Boston or back home.
The 37-year-old returned to the Bruins this past season after spending a year back home. He basically picked up where he left off, notching 16 goals and 40 assists in 70 games, providing Boston with an important secondary scoring boost which helped play a role in them taking home the Presidents’ Trophy. That performance helped earn Krejci the 16th spot on our top 50 free agents list, even with the expectation that it would be the Bruins or retirement for him.
Krejci admitted that Prague hosting the 2024 World Championship is particularly appealing to him so he’s not ruling out playing at some point next season. While it’s possible that it could be with the Bruins, a long playoff run could interfere with a desire to play at the World Championship, which is slated to run from May 10-26.
If that’s the case, it’s possible that Krejci could opt to play for part of next season back home, get named to Czechia’s entry for the Worlds, and call it a career on home ice. It’s a scenario that Krejci himself didn’t think was feasible back in May when he said he’d either play in Boston or retire. But a chance to go out on home soil while representing his country certainly is an enticing scenario.
Either way, the Bruins will be entering free agency with more certainty now that Krejci will not be on their roster in October when 2023-24 gets underway.
It remains to be seen what happens with fellow veteran middleman Patrice Bergeron and with his future also in question, Boston will undoubtedly be looking to try to fill two center spots over the coming days.
They also will be looking to fill a key winger slot as David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period relays that Tyler Bertuzzi will be heading to the open market on Saturday. When they moved Taylor Hall to Chicago on Monday to free up $6M in cap space, there was some expectation that Boston would then turn around and try to get something done with Bertuzzi and then make another cap-clearing move. Clearly, that hasn’t happened.
The 28-year-old is coming off a quiet season, one that saw him manage just eight goals and 22 assists in 50 games. However, Bertuzzi is only a year removed from a 30-goal campaign while and also has two other 21-goal campaigns under his belt so it’s believed that this was a blip and not a sign of things to come.
Bertuzzi’s performance with Boston certainly helps to fuel that belief. After being acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline, he picked up 16 points in 21 games down the stretch before tying for the team lead in scoring in their first-round loss to Florida with five goals and five assists in seven contests. That performance landed him in the tenth spot in our rankings, fifth among wingers.
Barring any moves on Friday, Boston will enter free agency on Saturday with a little over $11M in cap space, per CapFriendly. However, with six forwards to sign along with re-signing netminder Jeremy Swayman, a lot of their shopping is likely to come at the lower end of the market even though they have several prominent players to try to replace.
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