Brett Ritchie
Brett Ritchie joined up with the Boston Bruins this summer after not being renewed by the Dallas Stars. He’s going to arrive seeking to prove a point, no doubt. With the players he’ll find himself playing alongside, we believe he’ll elevate himself at training camp and come out looking like a free agency bargain.
We’re looking to a player that elevated his game alongside stronger linemates for one season in Dallas; netting an NHL career-high of 16 goals and adding 8 assists across a 78 game stint. He backed that up by managing a further 7 goals and 7 assists in a 71 game run the next year.
These aren’t exactly world-beating numbers, but you could fathom a world in which he has a ceiling of about fifty points if paired with David Krejci and Jake Debrusk on the second line.
A total of 48 points across 68 games in his debut AHL season suggests there certainly is a scoring touch about him; it’s just a case of finding the right cehmistry to draw it out of the Stars’ 2011 second round pick.
When nobody is expecting too much, aside from adding to the roster depth, it should be viewed as a real opportunity. For Ritchie, that’s exactly what this year with the Boston Bruins should be; a huge chance to elevate his game and stake a claim, at 26 years-old to a regular NHL starting line-up spot.
However, to do this he really needs to come out at camp all guns blazing. If we see the Ritchie that Dallas got last year then I can’t see him stepping out of the press box very much, if he doesn’t find himself sent to Providence, that is. His return of 6 points in 53 games was a real let-down.
Training camp this year should be seen as a fresh start; a chance to impress the Boston Bruins and put last year in the past.
For all of these players, it’s not quite make-or-break, but it certainly sets the tone for the year ahead, both for them and the Boston Bruins.
If they come out of the gate red-hot, that’s perfect – the team will find itself comfortably on course to return to the playoffs at the very least. Should they falter though, in part because nobody showed up at training camp, well, the Atlantic Division is a challenging place.