If the first two days of NHL free agency are any indication, it's going to be a very quiet off-season for the Bruins unless they make some legitimate trades. At least they did something notable today rather than just watching one of their best players (defenseman Torey Krug who got an extra large bag full of money in St. Louis) leave for way more money on a team that's just as good if not better than them. Unless you are a Predators fan, you are the rare person that plays fantasy hockey (you should, it's a blast!) or maybe you like college hockey, you are excused if you've never heard of Craig Smith before now. Boston fans will get familiar with him soon enough as the veteran right wing signed a three-year contract worth $9.3 million dollars.
He was never a star in Nashville but when you look at his career stats-all nine seasons were with the Predators-you can start to understand why B's GM Don Sweeney targeted him once he hit the market. We all saw in the bubble how overly-reliant Boston had become on the power play leaving their 5-on-5 play to be described as rough at best. The 31-year-old Smith has scored 162 career goals in the NHL and 120 of them came when it was even strength and 42 of them were on the power play. Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy doesn't have to decide his lineup anytime soon but you figure that Smith would fit well on the third line at right wing with Charlie Coyle at center and who knows at left wing (Anders Bjork?).
Smith has scored 20+ five times with a career-high of 25 in 2017-18. He's not just a goal-scorer either since he has also registered 168 career assists. He has notched 20+ assists four times including a career-high 28 in his rookie year (2011-12). His career plus/minus is plus-67 which is very solid with seven consecutive positive plus/minus seasons in a row including his best ever (plus-20) in 2017-18. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, he lived the life of a hometown hero as he played at the University of Wisconsin before getting drafted in the fourth round (98th overall) by Nashville in 2009. Under Sweeney, the Bruins have a great track record of finding the right college hockey alums who tend to be mature and dependable beyond their years (Krug, Charlie McAvoy, Coyle, Sean Kuraly, Matt Grzelcyk, etc.).
The Smith news dropped before noon today giving the B's plenty more time to make a bigger move, except they didn't. At Sweeney's press conference, he was asked about the two best free agents who still remain unsigned: defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and left wing Taylor Hall. Sweeney basically said that he hasn't talked to the former Blues' camp so he is not coming to the black and gold. However, Sweeney's Harvard businessman side came out in full force when he vaguely referred to Hall without saying his name but implying that they're working on it. Okay! I'm not saying that it's going to happen and honestly, Smith is a fine player but man these last few days have been mostly a wet fart for the Bruins. Oh and did I mention that Cap Friendly-the best NHL salary cap website-projects Boston to have $12.295 million dollars worth of cap space even after Smith's deal? Here's an idea Don, USE IT!
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