Savard

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli today released the following statement about star center Marc Savard:

“Today Marc passed the tests administered by Dr. Micky Collins from the Sports Medicine department at UPMC, and is now cleared for contact. Marc will rejoin the team tomorrow for morning skate in Florida. There is no timetable at this time for Marc to start playing games.”

If that’s not a shot across the bow of some guys — as in Michael Ryder, Matt Hunwick — I don’t know what is. Now there’s really only one more hurdle for Savard to clear, and that’s a practice, or a tretch of practices, with contact and no symptoms.

Practice time  in the weeks ahead could continue to be tight with Boston playing pretty much every other day. And the Bruins are obviously going to take their time to make sure they don’t rush Savard back after what transpired since last spring. But now his return to the lineup is even more of a reality, as is the need for Chiarelli to make a move or two to clear the space on the Bruins’ cap.