As soon as the NHL free agent feeding frenzy commenced last Saturday, Tyler Bertuzzi was projected to land one of the heftiest contracts.
So when he finally settled on a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Maple Leafs, it came as a surprise to many.
Count general manager Don Sweeney and the Bruins among those who shared that sentiment.
“Probably a little bit,” Sweeney said. “I’ll speak more generally than just talking about a player on another team at this point in time. There were players that were looking for longer-term deals and my discussions were focused on that, and some teams were in a good position to be able to give shorter-term deals at the right numbers and we had to go and fill our gaps.