Not much noise has been expected back then, not much attention fans pay to him now. But Connor Clifton is quietly leaving his mark in Boston Bruins’ colours.
When the Arizona Coyotes, not the Boston Bruins, drafted Connor Clifton as the 133rd overall player in the fifth round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft; not many people around believed that the Coyotes were going to break the bank with the selection.
And they did not – the Coyotes never signed Connor Clifton. The young New Jersey native decided to develop his hockey skills in the NCAA with the Quinnipiac University. In his four seasons down there in the NCAA, Clifton played in 156 games collecting 56 points; he has shown his offensive qualities, but this is not the main strength of the right-handed defenseman.
Two years ago, the Providence Bruins gave him a chance in the American Hockey League. He played 54 games in the AHL and later added 4 games in the AHL playoffs last season. That was enough to convince the Boston Bruins to sign Clifton to a two-year entry-level contract in 2018. They had the chance to still sign him to an entry-level deal and they didn’t want to miss on that opportunity.
But Connor Clifton started his year in Providence once again. Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Kevan Miller, Steven Kampfer; that was the minimum queue he had to clear on the right side of the Boston Bruins defense. Not a chance Connor Clifton could make it there, you’d have thought.
Every season is a challenging one for the Boston Bruins once the injuries start to pile up. With the injuries mounting on the back-end, the Bruins needed the call-ups from the Providence Bruins. Boston recalled Urho Vaakanainen, who got concussed in just his second game in the NHL. The Bruins later called up another defenseman, Jeremy Lauzon.
Lauzon was certainly playing up to expectations, but the injuries continued to rock up. Even on the Providence Bruins defensive list; Clifton was well behind high draft choices like Vaakanainen, Lauzon or Jakub Zboril. Once the Bruins were depleted to the level of missing McAvoy, Zdeno Chara, Miller or Carlo, they had to make two emergency call-ups – Jakub Zboril and Connor Clifton made their NHL debuts in a game on the road against the Dallas Stars on November 16.
The Stars won that game 1-0 in overtime, but the Bruins got at least a point. Many Boston Bruins fans wondered how the former first-round draft pick in Jakub Zboril would perform. But it was rather that unknown Connor Clifton, who impressed. On his NHL debut, Clifton logged 18:53 of the ice time. On the depth chart list, he was the Bruins 12th defenseman; however he kept playing for another eight games.
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But then the Boston Bruins started to get healthy and Clifton was sent back down to Providence. With the injuries late in the season, another familiar story for the Bruins as head coach Bruce Cassidy had to cover the loss of Kevan Miller. Clifton returned to the lineup for another 10 games in the final four weeks of the regular campaign.
In his 19 games played, Clifton collected one assist, while averaging 17:42 of the ice time and the CF% of 56.9 at even strength. Headed to the playoffs, still without Kevan Miller, Connor Clifton was there to stay and play.
Unfortunately for him, he left Game 2 with an injury in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs and did not return for the rest of the series. Not a problem, as the Boston Bruins won it and that was just the first round. He returned just three days before his 24th birthday in Game 1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round on April 25.
Bruce Cassidy clearly views Connor Clifton as just a sixth defenseman and his time on the ice demonstrated it, but Clifton tried to seize his opportunity. In Game 5, he served Brad Marchand with a beautiful pass to set up a goal to make it 2-0. In Game 6, he was the one setting up an outlet pass to Jake DeBrusk who rang the puck off the post and then David Krejci buried the rebound to open the scoring.
In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final versus the Carolina Hurricanes, Clifton logged 18:02 of the ice time, which was his best in the playoffs. Before that, he logged 16:56 of the ice time in Game 2 against Columbus, which was of course, a double-overtime game. And that was it, he has almost never got over 13 minutes of the TOI.
One could say, that Bruce Cassidy gave him the opportunity to play bigger minutes on the right side because of the absence of McAvoy. In an eventful Game 2 and with McAvoy back, Clifton played 19:28 with 19:02 of that at even-strength, topped only by the captain Zdeno Chara.
At the beginning of the second period, Marcus Johansson set Connor Clifton up for his first ever NHL goal. In his 19 regular season games, Clifton had one assist. In his 10 playoff games, Clifton has already recorded one goal and two assists for three points. At even-strength, he is averaging the CF% at 52 and the xGF% at 57.89.
Connor Clifton was the Bruins 12th defenseman on their depth chart in November. With unfortunate injuries, he got his chance to play. Not only that, he took this opportunity with both hands and he has certainly not disappointed so far. If someone told him before the season, that he would score a goal in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final while logging more than 19 minutes on the ice, he wouldn’t believe. But that´s the reality now.