Boston Bruins waive Craig Cunningham.
Dec 13, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins left wing
Craig Cunningham(61) skates with the puck during the third period against the Ottawa Senators at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins will hopefully be making a trade between now and tomorrow to get the team ready for the playoffs. So today, the B’s made a move to open up a little more cap space. They chose to place fourth line forward Craig Cunningham on waivers.
(A hidden object lesson in this should be never be a promising young player that gets his own little slice of face time on the Bruins’ ‘Behind the B’ show. It usually means you will be either sent down to Providence or traded away.)
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This moves clears up six hundred thousand in cap space. With all the high end frenzy that’s currently circling around this trade deadline, it’s unlikely that Cunningham will get picked up by another team. If he did, it would be a shame. Cunningham looks like the future face of the Bruins fourth line.
It’s pretty safe to say that Gregory Campbell or Daniel Paille (perhaps both) will not be wearing Bruins uniforms at the end of the season. Both Campbell and Paille are free agents at the end of the year, and both have had disappointing seasons for the Black and Gold.
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Cunningham, like most of the fourth liners has been more of a ‘intangibles’ player in Boston. In the thirty-two games he has played for the Bruins he only has tallied three points(two goals). While his offensive production has been limited, he has certainly made up for it in other parts of the ice. Cunningham is fearless while he’s playing. He comes up big for the B’s as a multi-faceted player who is not afraid to use his body for hits or stopping one hundred mile slap shots.
A certain amount of this has to be put on the shoulders of Claude Julien as well.
Julien has a tendency to make odd lines. If that line looks good together, he often tries to keep them together. Daniel Paille has found a new pair of legs with Loui Eriksson and Carl Soderberg (the ‘Swedey Pie’ line.) He’s also molded together a new fourth line that has a certain amount of sytle and oomph to it. This new fourth line combines veteran Chris Kelly with newcomer Brian Ferlin and here-again, gone-again Jordan Caron.
It does make more sense in this context to move Cunningham back to Providence in the short-term. The Providence Bruins could certainly use the help, and his NHL experience will prove invaluable there.