Adam McQuaid‘s contract was one of the more controversial decisions made by Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney in the offseason. A lot of the fans felt that the often-hurt defenseman was being seriously overpaid when the B’s announced his four-year deal, eleven million dollar deal. While McQuaid has been injury prone in the past, he looks as big and nasty as he did before all his health problems back in 2013.
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McQuaid will be starting his seventh season as a member of the Black and Gold. While he isn’t a flashy offensive-minded player, he fits in well with the Claude Julien system. Last season, he played in sixty-three games for the Bruins (the most since 2011-12 season), while average a personal best 18:26 of ice-time per game. While he only put up seven points(one goal) for the B’s, he was one of the Bruins better defensive players. The 28-year old PEI native had a turnover ratio of only .35 per game(1.14 per actual 60 minutes of playing time).
Now McQuaid is trying to move up to a top-four job with the B’s. He and Torey Krug have both put on muscle during the summer and are trying to prove they have what it takes to move up. During the summer, McQuaid had surgery to clear up the last of the complications he has been battling since the blood clot scare a few seasons back. Now, McQuaid feels he is in prime condition to be a more useful player to the Black and Gold in 2015-16.
“I feel really good physically…probably as good as I’ve felt since my first couple of years in the league. They say about 80 or 90 percent of the people that got the surgery I had in 2013 also eventually have this one as well. I’m glad now that I got it done this summer because now I feel like I’m back to where I was before the Thoracic stuff happened,” said McQuaid to CSNNE.com. “For me I’ve really missed and I’m trying to get back used to that . I think guys want to bring the competitive edge to camp, and that’s what we need from our group.”
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McQuaid’s 6-foot-5, 209 pound frame will certainly be useful as the Boston Bruins try to banish the memory of last year’s disappointing season. McQuaid is willing to be the stay-at-home defenseman for his team, but he’s also ready to accept any new challenge the Bruins’ tweaked system will have for him.
“If I’m being looked at to play a little bit of a different role then I think there will be some adjustments made for everybody. Maybe more so for me than other guys, but there may be times where I’m playing with somebody that’s more apt to get up into the play,” said McQuaid. “They can do that more so if they know I’m playing back. But it can’t just be my partner , I’ll have to support as well.
“I don’t think this is a changing the guard here. It’s not ground-breaking here, but it’s a change for sure that I’ll have to work on just as much as anybody else.”