What if Ari Gold represented Tomas Kaberle?

If it were the fictional agent on Entourage, and not Rick Curran, who advised the free agent defenseman, he could simply recycle one of his lines on his client, and it would be pretty close to dead-on in accuracy:

“It ain't eight months ago, man. Listen, you cooled off. The $5 million offers do not exist.”

Well, maybe the offers of $5 million annually never existed -- and that line initially had something to do with a movie co-starring the Olsen twins -- but eight months ago was a much more optimistic time for Kaberle. Back in early November, the four-time All-Star was only 12 games into the final season of his five-year, $21 million contract with the Maple Leafs. Bruins fans, who had long known the veteran blueliner was on their team’s radar, saw what happened along the way. And that brings us to now. 

In the days leading up to the opening of free agency, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli gave Kaberle a message that teams give their unsigned players all the time: see what’s out there, and we’ll talk. When free agency opened, even the biggest Kaberle bashers in all of North America would have to consider the 33-year-old one of the two best blueliners on the market, as Kevin Bieksa (Canucks), Christian Ehrhoff (Sabres) and James Wisniewski (Blue Jackets) all inked deals with their teams before noon on Friday. 

The annual July 1 “frenzy” took place, and though the top free agent (Brad Richards) took until Saturday to choose his new team (the Rangers), most of the big names got snatched up in short order on Friday. The B’s felt the sting on free agency’s opening day when Michael Ryder took a two-year, $7 million pact with the Stars. In the meantime, Kaberle remained unsigned. 

Now, on the fifth day of free agency, Kaberle is still unsigned, and it could be a while before he chooses a new team. As in many days. 

When the Bruins acquired Kaberle on Feb. 18 and threw together a press conference that day with Chiarelli, the Bruins GM stated that he believed Kaberle could bring the team closer to a championship and that it was his intention to re-sign the Czech defenseman. 

Kaberle displayed his shortcomings – poor skating and the tendency to be outmuscled by anyone interested in taking the puck from him – far more than his outstanding work with the puck at times, and it drew criticism from both fans and members of the media (this space included).  But while the power play got significantly worse with Kaberle as its quarterback, the season ended with Kaberle and everyone else in the away uniforms raising the Stanley Cup in Vancouver. The ultimate goal of winning the Cup was reached, and now, on the fifth day of free agency, one would have to assume his price tag will be lower than Chiarelli assumed back in February. If the B’s can say they won the Cup and got Kaberle back on the cheap, that’s as win-win as it gets. Even if Joe Colborne and Tyler Biggs (the player the Maple Leafs chose after moving up to No. 22 with the Bruins’ first-round pick in last month’s draft) go on to become stars, the B’s won’t be able to complain. 

The questions are whether the Bruins want to re-sign Kaberle, and just why he’s still available. Is his camp unwilling to come down from a number Kaberle probably deserved a year ago, or is the interest level just lower than one would have expected? Either way, if the B’s are interested in bringing Kaberle back, they have him right where they want him. They told him to go out and see if he could find the contract he desired, and considering that he’s yet to put a pen to paper, it seems that offer isn’t there.

Kaberle’s time in Boston last season was shaky enough for the Bruins to be wary about committing significant dollars and years to him, not to mention the fact that it would slow the development of guys like Steven Kampfer and Matt Bartkowski. On the other hand, if the market for Kaberle is scarce, and the B’s can get him on a deal somewhere in the neighborhood of two years and less than $3 million per, Chiarelli’s tactic and Kaberle’s play will have combined to make a fine situation for the Bruins. It would certainly be a risk-reward play for the Bruins, but if Kaberle can reward the B’s by turning back into a difference-maker on the power play who plays 20-plus minutes a night, things will have worked out in a big way.

Kaberle’s 49-game sample with the Bruins wasn’t all that impressive until the Cup finals, but he silver lining of it just may be that they one day get the Tomas Kaberle they thought they were getting, but at a discount price. It sure is an easier pill to swallow when you have the Cup.