Wheeler awarded $2.2 million in arbitration

Boston Bruins forward Blake Wheeler was awarded $2.2 million in arbitration on Thursday, giving him quite a raise from the $875,000 base salary he earned during his first two seasons in the league.

The Bruins now have 48 hours to accept the decision, or walk away from it, which would allow the 23-year-old Wheeler to become an unrestricted free agent. Should they accept it, it’s going to further tighten the team’s cap crunch as it was, according to CapGeek, just $12,000 under the $59.4 million ceiling as of Thursday afternoon. Of course, teams are allowed to be as much as 10 percent over the cap until the start of the season.

Wheeler is coming off an 18-goal, 20-assist season with the Bruins, while scoring one goal in 13 playoff games (his only goal in 21 career postseason games). His numbers regressed across the board after an impressive rookie campaign, despite seeing more ice-time and playing most of his shifts on a line with David Krejci and Michael Ryder. Even so, he’s still a talented — and young — 20-goal scorer in the NHL, and that’s certainly a positive asset to a team.

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