BOSTON — The Bruins held their annual media day Tuesday at TD Garden, two days before opening the defense of their Stanley Cup championship.
But while the season is just 48 hours away, the Bruins still have not quite finalized their roster. They got down to 24 players in camp after goalie Anton Khudobin was put on waivers Monday. He cleared Tuesday and will be assigned to Providence.
With defenseman Steven Kampfer expected to start the season on injured reserve after suffering a sprained MCL in his left knee in preseason action, the Bruins don't have to make any further cuts to get to the 23-man limit.
"We took careful planning not to mettle with it too much," Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said of the roster. "We recognized we're losing a couple key performers and we've added a couple players and we've also taken into account the rest of the guys are going to be better and more experience. We took a bit of a hands-off approach that way, because chemistry was a very important part of our planning."
The Bruins did add defenseman Joe Corvo and forward Benoit Pouliot and have rookies Jordan Caron and Matt Bartkowski poised to open the season with the big club. But there is still one important order of business left, as one of those 23 players still in camp remains without a contract.
Veteran forward Chris Clark came to camp on a tryout invitation, and while he's performed well and made it through to the final cuts, the Bruins are still deciding whether or not to offer him a deal.
"We're evaluating it internally right now," Chiarelli said. "We haven't made a decision yet whether we're going to sign him or not. That's going to come down in the next couple of days."
Clark hasn't heard anything definitive from the club yet, but has been pleased with his performance in camp.
"I haven't heard anything," Clark said. "Hopefully I should know in the next couple of days."
"I felt it was one of my better camps in the last four or five years, just with not coming off any injuries and being able to show what I can do 100 percent and not having to hold up or back off anything," Clark added. "I've given everything I have and hopefully it's enough to stay here."
One potential issue is whether the Bruins would be willing to offer Clark a one-way deal guaranteeing him an NHL salary, or if they are looking to sign him to a two-way deal that would allow them to send him to Providence and a much lower number. Clark obviously would prefer a one-way deal, but didn't rule out agreeing to a two-way contract.
"That would be ideal," Clark said of a one-way deal. "But we haven't even gotten that far with anything yet. Hopefully that would be the case, but we'll see."
Clark has already made some sacrifices this camp, suffering a broken nose in a fight with the Islanders' Michael Haley in Boston's preseason finale on Saturday. Clark hasn't had the nose reset, and he will play through it if he is signed.
"I'll just let it go until I'm done playing hockey I guess," Clark said. "I've broken it before. It's all part of the game."
Clark added he's probably broken his nose five or six times before. "It was crooked before and it will be crooked until I'm done playing," Clark said. "I'll fix it then, and then I can resume my modeling career."
