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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 pleasant surprise of the stretch run,
Ryan Spooner.
The Basics
Player: Ryan Spooner
Age: 23
2014-15 Stats: Eight goals, 18 points, plus-2 rating in 29 games played.
Contract: $725,000 cap-hit through 2014-15 season.
How he got here: Drafted by Bruins in second round (45th overall) in 2010 NHL Draft.
Overview
I’ll be honest: When the Bruins sent Ryan Spooner -- who had zero points and a minus-2 rating in his first five games of the year -- down to the Providence Bruins on Oct. 18, I thought it was the last the Hub had seen of Ryan Spooner the Bruin. Given the logjam of NHL centermen in Boston, along with an inability to get going as a producing contributor at the NHL level for Claude Julien, I thought it’d only make sense that Spooner would be the key piece of any deadline day that the Black and Gold made.
And it sorta was, for a little while, anyways. The Bruins
almost sent Spooner to Buffalo for
Chris Stewart. The Bruins
almost went forward with the idea of putting Spooner, a natural center, on the wing. (Still have my questions as to whether or not that experiment was the B’s decision and not another team that was scouting the Ottawa, Ont. native for a potential trade.)
But a couple of weeks before the Trade Deadline, a significant knee injury to top-line center
David Krejci put Spooner, who once seemed completely banished to the minors, back into the NHL spotlight. And Spooner, realizing that the NHL opportunities with the Bruins were just about done if he didn’t break through during this ‘trial’ of sorts, took the puck and did not look back.
In the Boston lineup from Feb. 22 on, the 23-year-old recorded an impressive eight goals and 18 points and 67 shots on goal in just 24 games played, forming an impressive makeshift first line with fellow speedy youngster
David Pastrnak and big-bodied power-forward
Milan Lucic.
The Good
Well, this one’s pretty obvious, wouldn’t you say? Spooner was probably the only thing that Bruins had going for them during their unsuccessful stretch run. Recording all 18 points of his 2014-15 points in his 24-game run to finish the season, Spooner was a more-than-adequate fill-in for Krejci on the B’s top line, and really developed some notable chemistry on that line
and the B’s power play unit.
In a time where nobody seemed to produce, Spooner had points in all but nine of those 24 games. It’s not a mindblowing figure, sure, but for a player whose confidence always seemed to issue at this level, it was the world. But what stuck out most about Spooner’s game in Boston the second time around this season was his hunger to have the puck on his stick and simply fire it on net way more than he used to.
Known for his passing, Spooner continued to work on his shot -- which honestly seemed to surprise many defensive pairings and goaltenders with its speedy release -- which led to goals in bunches. Just ask the Ottawa Senators, a club that Spooner scored four goals against in just two games.
The Bad
Again, this one’s pretty obvious. Spooner’s start to the season was a nightmare. With Krejci on the shelf to begin the year, No. 51 had a golden chance with top-six minutes -- albeit with Lucic and
Matt Fraser on his wing -- to make a lasting impression on the Boston coaching staff. Instead, he posted zeros across the board and was by all means a complete and total nonfactor.
The Future
Spooner is a restricted free agent, but should by all accounts be back with the Bruins in 2015-16. And have a solidified role, too! Given the way everything looks to be unfolding for the B’s this summer, Spooner seems like the heir apparent to
Carl Soderberg, a pending unrestricted free agent whom the Bruins will be unable to pay, as the center on Boston’s third line. That’s a perfect fit for Spooner, too, and one that will allow him to continue to grow into his role as a full-time NHL center without the rough-and-tough competition of going against other teams’ top pairings. (At least at home.)
What the Bruins can/will pay Spooner, however, remains an interesting topic. They’re probably not exactly sold after a solid 24-game run (at least you’d hope not given their cap issues), so a one-year deal between the two parties seems like the safest route, but in terms of money, a tad (150 to 200 thousand cheaper than Soderberg’s $1 million deal) seems like an easy call for the Bruins.
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
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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