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Report: Iginla bonuses will cost Bruins next season

JaromeIginla

The Boston Bruins have to be happy that they decided to sign Jarome Iginla over the summer. Although he wasn’t able to play on Saturday, Iginla has been one of their best players with 30 goals and 61 points in 76 games.

That success comes with a price though and it looks like it’s one the Bruins won’t be able to pay this season. The 36-year-old forward was eligible to sign a contract that was heavy in bonuses because of his age and the Bruins took advantage of that to ink him to a one-year, $1.8 million deal with the potential for an additional $4.2 million in performance bonuses.

The reason Boston went that route is because it kept his cap hit artificially low -- at least temporarily. Teams are allowed to breach the salary cap ceiling through bonuses, but if they do so, then the excess carries over to the following season. With that in mind, the Boston Bruins are expected to have a cap penalty of around $4.5 million in 2014-15 due to Iginla, Dougie Hamilton, and Torey Krug’s bonuses, according to the Boston Globe.

That’s a sizable disadvantage and ironically might get in the way of the Bruins’ goal to re-sign Iginla. Boston already has around $62 million committed to the 2014-15 campaign, not counting the penalty and the salary cap is projected to be about $70 million.

They will have some flexibility because Marc Savard’s annual hit of roughly $4 million will be negated by putting him on the long-term injured reserve list, but the Bruins also have a handful of restricted free agents to re-sign. In other words, Boston doesn’t have a lot of breathing room going into the summer.

Follow @RyanDadoun