Chara Not Earning His Pay
Consider this: If you stuck another defenseman out there in place of Chara, someone with comparable physical traits — like the Rangers’ 6-foot-6, 235-pound Marek Malik or Florida’s 6-4, 212 Jay Bouwmeester — do you think the Bruins would be any worse off?
Probably not, and they’d have saved themselves more than $5 million a year.
That way of viewing things could be applied to many other players, as well. Bryan McCabe has not been horrendous for Toronto this season, but would it not be possible to replace him with a player with a similar package of skills - booming shot, moderate size and speed, brain lapses in his own end - for significantly less than $5.75 million?