The Boston Bruins announced the contract extension of blueliner Jonathan Aspirot on Sunday. The deal is a two-year pact worth $887.5K per season.
On the surface, this deal is naught more than a depth signing. Aspirot has been pretty much an AHL-level defenseman, who finally got a shot this season amid significant injury woes on the Bruins’ blue line.
But looking under the hood, there’s plenty of reason to see why the Bruins moved to lock up Aspirot.
The 26-year-old has just two goals and three points in 26 games this season. That’s nothing to write home about. But then again, Aspirot is not an offensive defenseman. He’s a defensive blueliner, and the numbers back that up.
The advanced numbers of Aspirot show that he’s been one of the more reliable defensive blueliners for the Bruins. The Bruins’ D-man has a 73.3 expected goals for rate this season. In other words, he’s been good at keeping the puck out of his own net while helping his team score while he’s on the ice.
He’s also maintained a 50.0 Corsi rating. That bodes well, as the Bruins have played less time in their own end with Aspirot on the ice.
But where the numbers really pop is the number of scoring chances. This season, the Bruins have allowed just one high-danger and medium-danger unblocked scoring chance. In contrast, the club has allowed 31 low-danger unblocked attempts. That’s a major reason why the Bruins have managed to avoid high-scoring games against them.
Sure, you might write those numbers off by saying that Aspirot is largely a third-pairing defenseman. But he’s consistently averaged over 18 minutes per game over the last half-dozen meetings or so.
Plus, he spends over 41% of the time in the defensive zone. Moreover, he spends 18.3% of his time in the neutral zone, suggesting that he plays a much harder defensive role as compared to other blueliners in the league.
Considering that Aspirot finally got a crack at the NHL in his third organization, the small sample size has been enough to prove that Aspirot has the makings of a solid NHL blueliner. He could be one of the best under-the-radar defensemen in the league.
That’s why the Bruins signed him when they did. The club will be better off for it, especially given how hard it is to find serviceable depth players in today’s current market landscape.