Report: Bruins will match any offer sheet on Dougie Hamilton

The Boston Bruins have managed to take care of a few of their own throughout the season, following up one-year deals with Torey Krug and Reilly Smith with extensions signed earlier this month.

But with eight regular contributors still set to become free agents, salary cap concerns, similar to the issue that cut the team down at the knees last summer, are set to resurface.

Thankfully, most of the pending free agents are players without considerable consequence. That is except for Dougie Hamilton, whose emergence as a top-flight defender could prove to exacerbate problems for whoever it is that may be in charge of next season's roster. 

Don't expect Boston to let Hamilton walk, though, even at a third-party price, writes the Boston Globe's Fluto Shinzawa:

Hamilton's growth only increases the odds that a desperate team such as Edmonton will sign him to an offer sheet. The Bruins will match at any price, but an offer sheet of $6 million annually would throw off the Bruins' budget. They'd prefer to sign him to a second contract more in line with what Minnesota gave Jonas Brodin ($4,166,667 per season over six years). This may be wishful thinking.

He's right: That is wishful thinking. As arguably the Bruins' most consistent defenseman all season, he's played himself well above the Brodin standard. 

But to avoid another disaster (a la Johnny Boychuk), the Bruins simply cannot allow another team to set the damage.