Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and third-line center Ryan Spooner are going to need somebody to help them meet in the middle of a new contract this summer.

A restricted free agent that filed for arbitration earlier this month, and with a July 26 arbitration hearing date set between the B’s and Spooner’s camp, the asks have come out, with the Bruins offering $2 million, while Spooner has requested $3.85 million.

The 25-year-old Spooner’s ask fits the bill of what he’s done over the last few seasons, with 11 goals and 39 points in 78 games this past season, 13 goals and 49 points in his first full NHL season in 2015-16, and 32 goals and 117 points in 214 total NHL games.

And though Spooner is coming off his most inconsistent and frustrating season in the NHL, with year-long bounces from left wing to center before he was a healthy scratch for the final two games of the club’s first-round series loss to the Senators, there’s no denying his importance to the B’s offensive punch.

Since Spooner broke into the NHL with a full-time role all the way back on Feb. 22, 2015 (Spooner was a last-second recall following David Krejci’s knee injury), the Boston power play has ranked as the fifth-best unit in the league, clicking at 20.9 percent.

The left-shot Spooner has been a key part of that power play, too, with 26 power-play assists at 5-on-4 play over that span, which ranks as the third-most among Bruins skaters. Of the Ottawa native’s 26 helpers, 17 have been primary assists, tying him with Patrice Bergeron for the second-most on the B’s roster. Bergeron, by the way, has played 53 more games and 136 more minutes in this situation over the last three years.

The $3.85 million requested from Spooner’s camp is also just below the $4 million walkaway number for a player-requested arbitration hearing, meaning that the B’s will not have the ability to walk away from Spooner after the hearing even if he was awarded the maximum of his ask by the arbitrator later this week.

The Bruins have over $12.9 million in cap space, and have just Spooner and David Pastrnak left to re-sign before they begin to dip back into the free agent market.

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