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In Dec. 2013, with nine goals and 14 points in 13 games, Smith was on top of the Hub’s hockey world.
After his first 40 games in a Boston Bruins sweater, the story on
Reilly Smith, part of the four-piece return for
Tyler Seguin earlier that year, changed. Smith, who at the time had 14 goals and 31 points, was not a mere ‘throw in’. The Black and Gold knew his talent, and scooped him up without hesitation. (Depending on who you talk to, the Bruins were really high on one of Alex Chiasson or Reilly Smith and demanded that at least one of them be part of the oft/what-I’m-sure-will-be-forever criticized Seguin return.)
That nine-goal (including two power-play strikes) month also came with Smith shooting a downright absurd .300 percent, sending the red light into a dance on all but 21 of his 30 shots that month. The expected comedown soon came, though. Smith finished the year with 20 goals, but tallied just six in the final 42 games of the season, shooting .078 over that stretch. He found redemption in the postseason, though, scoring four goals (the second-most among B’s skaters) on 26 shots. (He also hit about a billion posts.)
Including both regular season and postseason figures, Smith’s first season as a Bruin included 24 goals and 56 points in 94 games played. And though he had 14 points on the power play, Smith remained a solid even-strength contributor, averaging 1.91 points per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play, and nabbing the primary assist on 15 of his 21 even-strength helpers. There was obvious upside to his game, even if he sometimes coasted as a beneficiary of his linemates, the Bruins’ three-zone dominant one-two punch combination of centerman
Patrice Bergeron and pace (and button) pushing winger
Brad Marchand.
But 55 games into his second season with the club, Smith’s contributions have been few and far between. Though he’s recorded 10 goals in 2014-15, Smith’s most recent stretch of futility has yielded just two goals in his last 24 games played. He’s averaging almost three fewer shots per 60 minutes at even-strength this season.
He’s become a passenger on the Bergeron line on an almost nightly basis. And
Claude Julien has seemingly tried everything to get Smith to contribute. He’s tried the positive approach, putting No. 18 up with
Milan Lucic and
David Krejci on the first line (he did that again in Friday’s loss to Vancouver), and he’s given him the tough love approach, too, demoting him down to the fourth line. Nothing’s clicked. And with the Bruins running out of time here, the pressure is on in more ways than one.
If you want to get real deep into this, since that nine-goal month of December last season, Smith’s regular-season line includes just 16 goals and 47 points in 97 games played. 31 points in the first 40 games versus 47 points in the last 97 games. .78 points per game versus .48 points per game. It’s a staggering drop, especially when Smith has played almost all of his minutes on a line that’s known for its ability to generate significant chances in the attacking zone despite its two-way reputation, and has (rightfully) put the Boston front office in a situation where they ask themselves what they really have here.
A year ago, Smith was an undeniable part of the Bruins’ core, and seemed in line for a contract similar to that of Tampa Bay’s
Tyler Johnson (three years, $10 million). Now? Well, not so much. Not in Boston, anyways. And I think there’s significant emphasis there.
And if you could sum up the B’s season (and in all likelihood, their summer) in one phrase, it’d be cap crunch.
The Bruins need to find a way to either shed salary or get their guys re-signed to cap-friendly deals. And there are two sides to this coin when it comes to Smith.
The first one is that Smith, who signed a one-year, $1.4 million contract in September, has played his way out of a Johnson-like contract (in the wrong way). But given the fact that he left money on the table by way of this one-year, team-friendly deal, it’s hard to imagine Smith accepting another one to two year deal worth a total of $3 to $3.5 million. Smith could get a contract similar to Marchand’s bridge deal of a few years ago -- maybe $5 million for two years -- but again, I’m not sure if that will be in Boston given Boston general manager
Peter Chiarelli’s need to sign restricted free agent defensemen Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug to new deals, as well as figure out if/how/when they’re going to pay third-line center and pending unrestricted free agent
Carl Soderberg.
And here’s the other side-- Smith might just be the B’s best trade chip.
The Black and Gold have rotated their top-nine right wingers throughout the entire season, but their long-term plans obviously involve
David Pastrnak up on the right wing of the Krejci line, while
Loui Eriksson can seemingly play with Soderberg, or even Bergeron/Marchand (way smaller sample size, but solid nevertheless). But, they’d still like to make an upgrade to that spot, and for a club sort on cap and roster space, moving a right winger out could be the only way that they truly fit one into an actual need.
In essence, you’re not going to spend assets to acquire a guy to log fourth-line minutes, or acquire a top-six winger and bump a Pastrnak or Eriksson down to the fourth line. Factor that in with the Bruins’ unwillingness to move
Alex Khokhlachev, who I believe is the clear heir apparent to Soderberg’s spot on the third line if No. 34 walks as a free agent this summer (which, if I’m his agent, am certainly telling him to consider given the thin center market), and they’re not exactly dealing from a position of strength.
Smith’s value on the trade market comes with the understanding that he’s in just his second full season on an NHL roster, and can improve with patience, and that he’s a restricted free agent at the end of the season. His resume is already lightyears more impressive than some of the Bruins’ other alleged trade chips -- from Ryan Spooner to Matt Bartkowski or the famed second-round pick return in the Johnny Boychuk trade -- and could yield the most impactful return. That's also a reason why the Bruins could/would hang on to Smith, though.
With just a little more than two weeks to go before the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline, the Bruins will continue to try and find ways to get Smith back to the level he was at a year ago. But if that doesn’t work, the thought of moving Smith for a manageable return will undoubtedly cross Chiarelli’s mind, you’d think.
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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