The Boston Bruins made seven transactions over the first day of the free agency period, but the most impressive deal was the one which didn’t include any big free agent signing, instead it was purely Don Sweeney signing a simple contract extension for Connor Clifton.
Because of the tight salary cap space situation, it hasn’t been a case of ‘everything is rosy’ ahead of free agency. Nobody was going to sign Artemi Panarin or Matt Duchene or whoever was out there, from the Boston Bruins perspective. Apart from the deals for Par Lindholm and Brett Ritchie, extending Connor Clifton has been very surprising, but also encouraging.