Boston Bruins: Former player shows how fickle NHL life can be

In the second round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Boston Bruins picked Ryan Spooner. Just nine years on, he finds himself getting ready to play in Switzerland.

Ryan Spooner was picked in the second round (45th overall) by the Boston Bruins in 2010 and the Canadian-born center looked to have all the makings of a player that’d stick around in the NHL. Instead, at twenty-seven years old, he’s in Europe trying to rejuvenate his career.

As a rookie with the Providence Bruins in the 2012-13 season, he led the team on points grabbing 57 in 59 games. That sort of total in the American Hockey League typically translates in the big league and was likely the reason he was given his NHL debut that same year.

The next two seasons, he spent more time with the Boston Bruins, but still finished both campaigns with significantly more games in minor-league gear than in the NHL. However, over the course of the two campaigns, he grew as a player and started scoring points and indeed his first goal as an NHL player – the growth as a professional was definitely there.

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Fast forward to the 2015-16 season and Ryan Spooner finally made it stick in the Boston Bruins line-up and in impressive fashion too, grabbing 49 points in an 80 game year, 39 points in 78 games followed the year after.

From there though, it all went a bit sideways. The Boston Bruins clearly had worked hard on developing Spooner and he didn’t necessarily deserve to be traded, but hockey is a business and he found himself part of a trade package.

Along with Matt Beleskey, Ryan Lindgren and a couple of draft picks, he landed with the New York Rangers; Rick Nash headed the other direction in return. His first twenty games in the ‘Big Apple’ seems to suggest that he’d fit right in, tallying 16 points but the next season, the production dried up.

This resulted in a trade to the Edmonton Oilers, where he ended up having another minor-league stint before finding himself traded to the Vancouver Canucks before eventually being unconditionally waived and bought out.

Fickle is the NHL world that at twenty-seven, a player that showed plenty of promise, not only in Boston Bruins colours but also initially when he arrived with the Rangers, is off to HC Lugano of the Swiss League to try and resurrect a very promising NHL career.

Perhaps he sets their league on fire and finds himself back in the NHL sooner rather than later; maybe he’s an option for the Boston Bruins even?

Such is professional sports that these players have to make the absolute most of their talents at all times. One dud season can lead to bouncing across the continent for the year and then bouncing to a whole new continent entirely.

Best of luck to Ryan Spooner in shaking things up and turning it around. We look forward to hopefully seeing him return to the United States in a year’s time to skate on NHL rinks once more.