Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
The 2014-15 season was a year of hits and misses for the Black and Gold.
In spite of a 97-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, 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 continues with the club’s big deadline pickup,
Brett Connolly.
The Basics
Player: Brett Connolly
Age: 23
2014-15 Stats: 12 goals, 17 points, and a plus-3 rating in 55 games played.
Contract: $851,000 cap-hit through 2014-15.
How he got here: Acquired by Bruins in trade with Tampa Bay Lightning in Mar. 2015.
Overview
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s deal with the Boston Bruins came in the middle of the night, and seemingly as a necessity for the Bolts to add defenseman
Braydon Coburn from the Philadelphia Flyers given the price Steve Yzerman and the Lightning were paying in that Philly deal. But the deal also worked to the B’s favor: In Connolly, the Black and Gold acquired a 6-foot-2 winger with a powerful right shot that would fill a need in the now and be under team control (read as: not a rental).
But Connolly’s addition to the Boston lineup took longer than expected, with Connolly missing 14 games with a broken finger suffered in one of his first practices with the Bruins, and ultimately ended with the former fifth-overall pick suiting up in just five games for the B’s, recording two assists and bouncing literally all over the Boston lineup in their unsuccessful push for the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Good
It was such a small sample size, but you couldn’t help but appreciate the ‘battle factor’ that Connolly seemed to bring to every shift during his five-game test with the Bruins. On top of his noted prowess with the puck on his stick, Connolly was an aggressive forechecker for Claude Julien’s squad, and rarely seemed to deviate from this in spite of a seemingly-forever-revolving door of linemates.
If there was a slight comparable for Connolly, at least to me, it would be Nathan Horton.
For three years, Horton was a fixture on the Boston top line with David Krejci and Milan Lucic, and I think that’s ultimately where Connolly would be at his best. He skates with many of the same qualities -- including a powerful shot that does require a bit of time and space to accurately get off the stick -- but his stature makes No. 14 look a little bit like No. 18 out there. At least to me. (That’s not a bad thing.)
The Bad
Well, the biggest ‘bad’ that surrounded Connolly the Bruin was of course his injury. But you can’t hold that against him, really. He took a
Dennis Seidenberg slapshot off the glove at practice. (Of course this was like one of the five times Seidenberg was able to hit something besides the glass with his shot, right?) And with a five-game sample, it’s hard to find any one area of weakness or serious criticism. But if there’s one, it came in a two-game stretch on Apr. 8 and 9 where he racked up a 10 minutes in penalties in two games. The last of those five minors proved to be costly, too, as it paved the way for a
Aleksander Barkov goal that tied things up between the Bruins and Florida Panthers at 1-1 through 40 minutes, and gave the ‘Cats the momentum they rolled with en route to a win.
The Future
Connolly is a restricted free agent, and should definitely be back in the Hub for at least one more season. His next contract, however, is a very real question mark, especially considering the Bruins’ cap problems and the fact that he’s a relative unknown in terms of his fit within this system. It wouldn’t shock me to see the Bruins and Connolly come together for a one-year deal that has a lower cap-hit (anywhere from $1.5 to $2 million, I’d say) and puts No. 14 in a ‘show-me’ year.
Previous Bruin Year in Reviews
Gregory Campbell
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 • 
Join the Discussion:
»