Feb 10, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins right wing
Reilly Smith(18) gets set to shoot the puck during the third period against the Dallas Stars at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory
Credit
: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins have had a busy morning. They re-signed Torey Krug to a one-year deal earlier today, and have announced they have come to a roughly similar deal with forward Reilly Smith. The B’s signed Smith to a two year deal, locking up Smith until the end of the 2016-17 season. The contract has a cap hit of $3,425,000.
Smith was part of the Tyler Seguin trade that brought him and Loui Eriksson to Boston, and sent Seguin and Rich Peverley to Dallas.
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Smith currently has thirty-five points for the Black and Gold (twelve goals). He’s currently in a five-way tie for the third highest total on the team (with Carl Soderberg, Brad Marchand, Milan Lucic, and Dougie Hamilton). His twelve goals is good enough for fifth on the team, and his +11 rating is second best amongst the Bruins.
To Smith’s credit, he has not missed a single game for the Bruins so far in the two seasons he has been playing here.
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Smith (like Torey Krug) participated in his first full NHL season with Boston last year. He finished with fifty-one points(twenty goals) for the B’s. He was fifth on the team for goals, fifth on the team for assists and finished sixth overall among the B’s for total points. He finished the season with a +28.
While I am enthusiastic about the re-signing of Torey Krug, I’m a little less so for Reilly Smith. Krug has had to work harder to develop plays to earn points than Smith. Krug is part of the third defensive pair while Smith has spent most of the season with the team leader in goals (Brad Marchand) and the team’s overall point leader (Patrice Bergeron). Krug is on track to match his numbers last year. It will take an aggressive surge by the twenty-three year old winger to be able to equal last season’s success.
Don’t get me wrong about Smith. He earned a contract here. He took one for the team and signed a one year, cap friendly contract to help Boston stay under the cap limit this year. To me, the contract seems a little high. With a number of players still needing to be locked up for next season, the Bruins are going to have no choice but try to talk one of their long-term, no-trade players into waiving that clause if they want to stay under the cap next season.