Boston Bruins Do Not Qualify Brett Connolly And Others
Boston Bruins Do Not Qualify Brett Connolly And Others Before 5:00pm Deadline
The deadline to send out qualifying offers to restricted free agents ended at 5:00pm EST on June 27. Three players were left unqualified by the Bruins including Brett Connolly, Landon Ferraro, and Ben Sexton. During the 2015-16 season, Connolly and Ferraro played in 71 and 58 games respectively with the Bruins — Ferraro saw an additional 10 with the Red Wings prior to being claimed off of waivers by the Bruins earlier in the season.
Under Peter Chiarelli, the Bruins traded way two second round draft picks during the 2014-15 season to acquire Connolly from the Tampa Bay Lightning. The expectations were high for the former-sixth overall draft pick from the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, but they ultimately fell flat. Through 76 games with the Bruins, Connolly only scored 9 goals and 18 assists for 27 points while primarily playing alongsie Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Connolly also saw time in the Bruins’ bottom-six, but he never quite found his stride offensively in Boston.
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Current Bruins’ general manager Don Sweeney inherited Connolly when he took over last off-season, and the high cost to acquire him can’t be attributed to him. As a result, Sweeney decided cutting-ties was the best course of action, and Connolly will not become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Landon Ferraro was picked up off of waivers from the Detroit Red Wings last season, and he played well in a fourth line capacity. The Bruins failing to send him a qualifying offer is curious, but the Bruins do have some players within their system who could fill in adequately in the same role next season.
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With free agency set to kick off on July 1, the Bruins will have their hands full trying to fill out their most pressing needs on the roster. The bottom-six roles that Connolly and Ferraro filled will not be as high a priority as the top-six winger and top-four defensemen that the Bruins need, and that’s where their focus should ultimately lie.