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The 2014-15 season was a year of hits and misses for the Black and Gold.
In spite of a 96-point season, the Bruins saw their seven-year postseason streak come to an end, realized that their core may be aging faster than they originally anticipated, and ultimately saw their general manager take the fall for the club’s shortcomings. In the month of May (and June), we’ll take a look at the season of every player on the B’s and their future with the club heading on into 2015-16.
The series rolls on with the Lone Wolf of the point,
Adam McQuaid.
The Basics
Player: Adam McQuaid
Age: 28
2014-15 Stats: One goal, seven points, minus-2 rating in 63 games played.
Contract: $1.567 million cap-hit through 2014-15 season.
How he got here: Acquired via trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets in May 2007.
Overview
Boston Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid has horrible luck. Limited to just 30 games in 2013-14, McQuaid entered this past season with 91 games (including 19 postseason contests) out of action to his name since the start of 2011-12 season due to various injuries. (Honestly though, I suppose you should assume that a player the Bruins acquired for the draft pick that turned out to be superstar forward Jamie Benn is going to be genuinely screwed with poor bounces and luck because of course, you know?)
But when McQuaid survived Boston’s training camp and wasn’t a cap casualty (
Johnny Boychuk’s higher $3.3 million cap-hit took that shot out of Boston and to Long Island), the 28-year-old defender rewarded the Bruins with the second-most games played since 2011-12.
McQuaid suited up for 63 games for the Bruins -- and would have likely made it for the perfect 82 had it not been for a broken thumb No. 54 suffered in November -- in 2014-15.
It was a wildly disorganized 63-game run that included stints on every pairing and every situation for McQuaid, but resulted in a steady seven-point output, his most since 2011-12’s 10 points (and the third highest single-season mark of his NHL career). Even with the slight uptick in points, McQuaid’s physical snarl remained the same, too, as the Prince Edward Island native finished the year second on the club in penalty minutes (85 minutes), third in hits (141), and third in blocked shots (91).
The Good
The biggest plus this year was McQuaid’s overall health. 63 games isn’t exactly mindblowing, but it was a huge step for a blue-liner that played in just a combined 62 regular-season contests from the start of the 2012-13 season through last year. When healthy and with the Bruins relatively healthy, McQuaid proved to be a solid safety-net pairing partner for
Torey Krug on the club’s third pair, too.
McQuaid had a tangible impact on the depth of the B’s defense when in the lineup, too, as the club had a 34-20-9 mark with No. 54 in the lineup versus a 7-7-5 record with him out of action. That’s a 61.1 point percentage with him suiting up for the Bruins versus a 50.0 point percentage with him on the shelf. The former leads you to a 100-point season, whereas the latter leaves you with an 82-point year. I don’t want to say that they’re directly related, of course, but I think that McQuaid does provide a stabilizing presence to that third-pairing, and adds some extra net-front muscle to help the club out.
The Bad
You had to cringe every time you saw the Bruins trudge a McQuaid -
Dennis Seidenberg pairing out there. It was ugly. These guys were constantly stuck in the mud of their own end, were not a cohesive unit when it came to moving the puck out of their end, and were just an all-around nightmare. They had nightmare game after game (that disaster in Vancouver, and the debacle at Madison Square Garden), and constantly left goaltender Tuukka Rask throwing his arms up in disgust.
The Future
McQuaid is an unrestricted free agent come July, and is apparently still waiting for a contract offer from the Black and Gold. McQuaid’s a heart-and-soul type that’s played his entire professional career with the Bruins, and there’s something to be said for that, but a mutual parting of ways seems rather inevitable, no? I think the Bruins realize that they have bigger fish to fry on their point (eyes on you,
Dougie Hamilton), and also realize that they have an in-house replacement in
Kevan Miller that can likely do McQuaid’s job for half the price. That value is big for a cap-strung team like Boston. And at a certain point, the Bruins have to embrace the youth movement on their point with guys like Zach Trotman and Joe Morrow banging on the door for NHL opportunities, while players like McQuaid, as great as they were as roleplayers for your Cup-competing squads, embark on new journeys as grizzled vets.
But if the offer is right, and the Bruins aren’t necessarily sold on Miller being able to handle the bulk of those third-pairing minutes opposite a puck-mover (Krug, Trotman, or David Warsofsky), then maybe you bring McQuaid back on a one or two year contract worth $3 million. But anything more than that, at least in my opinion, would be a case of you rewarding past performance and ignoring your future.
(Prediction: I think he ends up in Edmonton, to be honest.)
Previous Bruins Year in Reviews
Gregory Campbell
Brett Connolly
Milan Lucic
Reilly Smith
Danny Paille
Loui Eriksson
Chris Kelly
Dougie Hamilton
Carl Soderberg
Matt Bartkowski
Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug
Ryan Spooner
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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