Boston Bruins Report Card: Adam McQuaid
The Boston Bruins knew they were going to have some big problems on defense this season. The B’s couldn’t figure out how to keep Dougie Hamilton during the offseason, and they hadn’t found anyone to replace Johnny Boychuk from the year before. With a core of young part-time blueliners, the Bruins were hoping players like Adam McQuaid could step up and help the B’s stabilize their defense.
Adam McQuaid – Defenseman
Games Played: 64 (the most played by the often injured McQuaid since the 2011-12 season)
Goals / Assists / Points: 1 / 8 / 9 (42 SOG with a 2.4% shot success rate).
Before the start of the season, Adam McQuaid got himself a serious boost to his bank account. Just before the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, McQuaid signed a four-year, $11 million dollar contract extension with the B’s. At the time Don Sweeney strongly defended the pay raise arguing that McQuaid’s current skill set warranted this sort of paycheck.
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McQuaid along with fellow blueliner Torey Krug told the Bruins organization that they were ready for top-four minutes this season. With Zdeno Chara still not at 100 percent, and Dennis Seidenberg being mostly invisible, the Bruins had no choice but to take them at their word. While Torey Krug ate up top four minutes and did a solid job in all departments (save scoring), McQuaid remained a mostly stay-at-home defenseman.
Sure, the Bruins blue line wasn’t where it needed to be. With Torey Krug out for at least opening night, Zdeno Chara pushing 40, and not much help from the young guns, it won’t be where it needs to be (unless the B’s push a big deal before the draft or in the offseason) next season. Giving Adam McQuaid more money to push people around and not leave the B’s defensive zone was a bad idea.
McQuaid found himself being blown past by younger, faster players a lot this season. McQuaid also gave us some golden chances for the other team as well. It can be argued that his most memorable moment of the season is when he went up against former teammate Shawn Thornton.
The Bruins put McQuaid and Kevan Miller in a lousy situation. Both of them are perfectly capable bottom-pair defensemen. The blue line situation caused them to eat up more minutes against high quality players and that hurt the Bruins enough to keep them out of the playoffs for the second straight year.
The very nature of the NHL is changing. As much as I want to see the Big Bad Bruins return, it’s not fitting into the current evolution of the game. Stay-at-home defenseman who focus on blocking shots won’t get the job done anymore. McQuaid will either have to go outside his comfort zone, or he’ll end up being disappointing again next year.
Final Grade: D+