PRO HOCKEY - Little ($) room for improvement

It's promoted as Christmas in July for NHL fans, and there's plenty under the tree this year. There's a chance, though, that some of the priciest items will linger on shelves all over the league, including Boston. The free-agent market opens Wednesday, but many teams aren't in position to spend big. Even some with extra cash to toss around may stash at least a portion of it. Yes, it's a salary cap thing - not so much for the coming season, but for 2010-11. If initial projections are correct - and projections that the 2009-10 cap ($56.8 million) would pretty much match last year's figure ($56.7 million) were certainly right on the money - there's no reason to doubt predictions that the ceiling could fall by several million dollars for '10-'11. In other words, the free agent who fits under the cap on Wednesday may not fit beneath the cap in a year. That potential is certainly one of the reasons Boston has only re-signed one free agent (center David Krejci) so far. Already within $5-$6 million of the '09-'10 cap, there's more than enough room to keep young restricted free agents like defenseman Matt Hunwick and winger Byron Bitz, and perhaps one or two among a group of valuable veteran restricted free agents (forwards P.J. Axelsson, Mark Recchi and Stephane Yelle; defensemen Shane Hnidy and Steve Montador). Things aren't that simple, though. Goal-scoring leader Phil Kessel hasn't re-signed, either. His next contract alone could swallow much of the space general Peter Chiarelli has to work with in the coming season, and put the B's above the cap for '10-'11 - when they'll face re-signing restricted free agents Milan Lucic, Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart, to say nothing of UFAs Marc Savard, Andrew Ference, Aaron Ward and Shawn Thornton. No wonder, then, there were reports that Kessel would have been traded to Toronto for veteran defenseman Tomas Kaberle over the weekend, if the Maple Leafs had included their first draft pick (No. 7 overall). Kaberle's not necessarily inexpensive at a $4.25 million cap figure for the next two seasons, but that could well be less than Kessel's looking for, and as undeniably talented as Kessel is, it's also fact that Boston is deeper at forward than on defense. Not that a skilled, speedy player like Kessel could be replaced easily, but there's reason to believe the Bruins have players - especially young ones - capable of scoring more goals than they have so far. Naturally, Chiarelli hasn't confirmed the Kessel-Kaberle reports publicly. In fact, he called Kessel a "young player who has shown tremendous progress, and I'd love to be able to keep him," and said he'd "met a couple of times with Phil's agent, and we're trying to work through it." Still, the chatter isn't likely to subside until Kaberle is traded or Kessel signs, and it may be the only chatter heard around Boston for a while. Even if there was more money to spend, the Bruins don't seem to be in need of the big-name, big-money players expected to hit the market Wednesday (most are forwards, such as Marian Gaborik, Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, etc.), and may instead shoot for players a rung or so below. "I don't anticipate us being aggressive to start," Chiarelli said in Montreal. He's not the only GM in that mood, either: Draft weekend was remarkably free of major trades, likely because GMs across the league are leery of where the cap may go a year from now. "It's kind of a new horizon, with the impending lowering cap following this coming year," Chiarelli said. "I think, by nature, you're cautious entering this environment." Things may be different in other spots, but don't be surprised if it's a quiet Christmas in July around here this year. Reach Mike Loftus at mloftus@ledger.com. Read more of his Bruins draft coverage on Blog of Ice at PatriotLedger.com/sports READ MORE about this issue.