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If you’re the Boston Bruins, old friends headline the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But this year is different from the usual suspects like Islander defenseman
Johnny Boychuk, Dallas center
Tyler Seguin, San Jose’s
Joe Thornton. This year, the Bruins are left to lament what could have been with even more players, such as Bruin-turned-Panther winger
Reilly Smith. Through three postseason games with the Cats, and though the Panthers currently trail the Islanders two games to one, Smith’s stat line includes four goals (15 shots) and eight points. Those four goals are currently the most in the playoffs. The same can be said for his eight points, too.
And in case you’re unaware, this is a player that the Bruins traded for
Jimmy Hayes. Hayes, of course, had just 13 goals and 29 points in 75 games for the Black and Gold this season. Meanwhile, Smith, still just 25, bounced back to his 2013-14 form for Florida this year with 25 goals and 50 points.
Smith, whose $3.425 million cap-hit was a big reason for the trade, was swapped for Hayes, who was then signed at $2.3 million, while
Brett Connolly was extended at an affordable $1.025 million, so that the Bruins got Hayes and Connolly for the same price as one Smith. But Hayes and Connolly were not Smith, as the two combined for just 22 goals versus Smith’s 25. Because of course.
One fourth of the four-piece return sent to Boston in the Seguin trade, Smith was traded when his value was at an all-time low for the Bruins. He was coming off a 13-goal, 40 point year in which he couldn’t find a fit to the right of either Patrice Bergeron or David Krejci, and shot a woeful 9.1 percent.
Hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to the Smith trade (something I was originally and 100% on board with given how disengaged Smith appeared to be last season), but it could also serve as a lesson to be learned for the Bruins when it comes to their handling of a Connolly or Hayes this summer.
Hayes is under contract for two more years at $2.3 million, and it’s tough to imagine teams banging down any walls to acquire him, but Connolly, a 23-year-old pending restricted free agent, would be a player that I think the Bruins can’t quit on just yet the way they did with Smith.
A former Top-10 pick, drafted by Tampa Bay with the sixth overall selection in 2010, the 6-foot-2 winger has struggled since coming to Boston from the Lightning in exchange for two second-round picks in Mar. 2015. But there have been flashes of the player that provided a solid complementary scoring presence to the Lightning in 2014-15 -- Connolly scored 12 goals on 74 shots (16.2 shooting percentage) in 50 games for the Bolts a season ago -- peppered in between the fits of inconsistent, maddening play.
It’s easy to point to the struggles Connolly had in 2015-16 and suggest that the Bruins should simply cut bait and move on from No. 14 in spite of the price originally paid to acquire him.
But Connolly is still just 23, and bailing on a player after the worst year of his NHL career, especially at that age, often comes back to bite you. In fact, it would make sense for the Bruins to do just the opposite, and take another affordable gamble on a player that, even in his worst season, should probably shoot better than the 9.5% he had this past season.
Unless they’d like to chance watching him become a solid contributor for somebody else next spring.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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