Boston Bruins: John Moore offers poor value for money
By Luke Ryan
John Moore may have filled in for injured Boston Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference final sweep, but he offers poor bang for their buck.
When the Boston Bruins signed him last summer on a contract with a cap hit of $2.75 million, it’s safe to say they were hoping the John Moore that’d show up was the same one that netted 12 goals a couple of seasons back for the New Jersey Devils.
Instead, the Boston Bruins got a player that managed a feeble 4 goals and 9 assists across 61 regular season games. He has seen gone on to post a -4 plus/minus across his 5 post-season appearances this year; his even rating in Game 4, the best display he’s put up at this point.
Obviously, there is still a chance that once we finally know who will be lining up at the other end of the ice in the Stanley Cup Final, that Zdeno Chara is still missing. If that’s the case, we should expect to see more of John Moore. However, it’s fair to say that his performances don’t instil a ton of confidence and you’d rather not see the St. Louis Blues or San Jose Sharks bearing down on him.
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Maybe we’re unfair on John Moore; he’s a player that is very much miscast if we’re looking at him as a straight-up replacement for Zdeno Chara. Maybe we should be a little fairer and treat him for what he realistically is within the Boston Bruins group. He’s a third-pairing guy that allows someone else to move higher up the line-up without opening the risk of dumping a rookie out there in a big game.
John Moore has spent over two-thirds of the ice-time he’s seen this play-offs with Matt Grzelcyk, which meaning no discredit to either guy, is hardly top-pairing material. They’ve been tasked with third pairing minutes with the expectation of limiting shots on Tuukka Rask. To that point, they’ve not done the best job, especially Moore.
Grzelyck increase his Corsi For by almost 10% without John Moore on the ice with him. In fact, any of the Boston Bruins defencemen that have seen time with Moore increase their Corsi For percentages without him. Given Corsi approximates puck possession and a team can’t be shooting without the puck, it’s safe to say that this statistic highlights a pretty negative narrative around Moore’s defensive abilities this playoffs.
The worst part is the cost of John Moore for the Boston Bruins. Paying him nearly $3 million per season is a gross over-payment, especially when a rookie like Connor Clifton shows up and performs admirably on comparable pennies. Clifton is earning a near league-minimum of $725,000 despite seeing much more ice-time.
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What we could well see this Stanley Cup Final is that John Moore has already, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final, played his last jersey in Boston Bruins colours. Or should Chara not make it back in time, he may get one last outing for Boston in one of the biggest games of the season.