Bruins forward submits his arbitration ask; team counts with lowball offer

The Bruins have just $5.4M in cap space with which to get Swayman and Frederic locked up, but they've also got a significant need to address down the middle of the ice. As of this moment, their center corps consist of Pavel Zacha, Charlie Coyle, Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown and Jesper Boqvist.

We know that the team remains far apart with Swayman - $2.8M apart, to be exact - with the team and player asks in arbitration set at $2M and $4.8M, respectively. Now, thanks to Elliotte Friedman, we know the team and player asks between the Bruins and Frederic in arbitration. Per Friedman, the team is coming in low, at $1.4M for two seasons, while Frederic is requesting 1 year at $2.9M - a $1.5M difference. A slice down the middle here would have Frederic coming in at $2.15M, should the arbiter decide to have the team and player meet in the middle.

Frederic enjoyed a career year in 2022-23, tallying 17 goals and 31 points in 79 games, all while playing the physical brand of hockey that he's become known for. I have a hard time believing that the 25-year-old's cap hit will begin with a 1 next season. If Frederic's AAV ends up being in the $2.15M range and Swayman's AAV ends up in the same range as Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov ($3.55M), that will already put the Bruins over the cap. It won't be hard to become cap compliant, as they can simply demote someone to get back under the cap, but it certainly makes acquiring a new top line center a lot more difficult.