BOSTON (CBS) — Boston Bruins players are going to start reporting for duty over the next couple weeks.

So far general manager Don Sweeney has withstood the urge to sign a free agent veteran defenseman to try to make up for the loss of Dougie Hamilton.

Cody Franson–a favorite among Bruins followers and the player the Bruins have shown the most interesting in signing–David Schlemko, Tim Gleason, Anton Volchenkov, and Marek Zidlicky are all still looking for work with less than a month until the start of training camps.

A couple of the aforementioned players might be an upgrade on some of Boston’s current defensemen.

But based on what it would take in terms of space under the NHL salary-cap ceiling, none of these players might be worth the effort.

First, the Bruins currently have anywhere between $4-and-$5 million in cap space right now, according to the War-On-Ice website.

As the season unfolds and we find out more about the players the Bruins currently plan to dress in black-and-gold, this flexibility will give Sweeney the ability to address a need with a legitimate in-season trade.

The Bruins might even be able to take on a bad contract that comes along with a star-caliber player somewhere down the road.

In terms of the salary-cap ceiling, the Bruins haven’t been in this strong a position in a while.

It especially wouldn’t be prudent for Sweeney to sign any of the remaining free agents for anything more than one year.

It’s one thing to give up a little flexibility this season for a personnel upgrade.

It would be a mistake to handcuff the Bruins with a multi-year deal when they’ll be able to add some of their remaining cap space to the expiring contracts of Loui Eriksson and Chris Kelly and be a major player in free agency again next summer.

Cue Steven Stamkos fantasy here.

The biggest reason Sweeney might be best to sit out free agency the rest of this offseason relates partly to assessing the team’s needs once training camp and the preseason starts.

With several young players vying for NHL jobs in camp, Sweeney might be best to let the likes of Zach Trotman, Colin Miller, and Joe Morrow learn on the job at the NHL level and disprove the idea that Boston is weaker on defense now than at the end of last season.

Last season the Bruins struggled in their own end, but several things might take some of the heat off the blue-line corps and allow for some nurturing of inexperienced players.

Goaltender Tuukka Rask figures to be better, assuming he can get some more rest. After the longest offseason of his NHL career, Rask should be ready to play at an even higher level in 2015-16.

The Bruins’ scoring should also increase with Matt Beleskey, Jimmy Hayes, and a healthy David Krejci in the lineup regularly.

Rask wasn’t the only one that felt the pressure of feeling as though more than one goal against would kill the Bruins last season.

The defense corps had to play tight worrying that one mistake would mean the end of the game.

Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid should be fully healthy, at least at the start of this season, and they should benefit from a better supporting cast out of the gate.

Coming off their first season without making the playoffs in eight years, the Bruins have lowered their expectations.

No one’s planning next June’s Stanley Cup championship parade.

The focus for this season is one improving in several areas, instituting some changes to the system and getting back to the playoffs, where the Bruins could then make one of those unexpected playoff runs the NHL is famous four.

Part of all this should be letting several kids get their shot to develop at the NHL level.

If the Bruins were in a different place as far as their potential and players like Franson and Zidlicky projected as final-puzzle-piece types, I’d be all for getting one of them for market value and maybe even going beyond one year on a contract.

Neither the Bruins nor the available players meet these criteria. The Red Sox goofed when they panicked after Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and others didn’t look in 2014 like they were ready to be high-end regulars in the major leagues.

The result was ridiculous money thrown at Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval.

Although the financial commitments the Sox made and what the Bruins would have to pay for one of the current available NHL free-agent defensemen are in different universes, the concept is the same.

The Bruins can be a competitive Eastern Conference team that can finish anywhere from fourth-to-10th next season with what they have, and the experience younger guys gain now will pay off beyond this season when the stakes should be higher.

Plus, Sweeney has all the time from October to March to assess his players and work on trades if he doesn’t get the right production from the younger guys.

So far Sweeney’s maneuvers have made sense within his theory about making sure the Bruins aren’t just competitive now, but continue to be a force for four, five years down the road.

Staying away from free agents now would reinforce his sensibility and fit the plan well.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.