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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, 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 one of the club’s few natural right wingers,
Reilly Smith.
The Basics
Player: Reilly Smith
Age: 24
2014-15 Stats: 13 goals, 40 points, plus-7 rating in 81 games played.
Contract: $3,425,000 cap-hit through 2016-17 season.
How he got here: Acquired via trade with Dallas Stars in July 2013.
Overview
The lesser known return in the forever-debated trade that sent
Tyler Seguin to Dallas, Reilly Smith’s first season with the Black and Gold came as a pleasant surprise across the board. The Toronto, Ont. native scored 20 goals and 51 points, obvious career highs, and established a formidable spot on the B’s second line with three-zone monsters
Patrice Bergeron and
Brad Marchand.
His second season in the Hub, though, did not go as well.
After missing the start of camp due to contract issues with the B’s, Smith didn’t seem to exactly suffer from the lack of a full camp with the club. The former 69th overall pick began his season in his usual spot on the Boston second line and manning the point of the second power play unit, tallying four goals and 10 points in the opening 16 games of the season. Unfortunately for Smith and the B’s, that pace -- almost identical to his 2013-14 campaign -- did not come close to holding up over the next 65 games.
In the final 65 games of the year,
Claude Julien did everything he could to get Smith going, bouncing No. 18 from line to line and even benching him on numerous occasions, but had little to show for it. Smith had three different stretches of at least 10 games without a goal, and ultimately finished his season with 40 points, an 11-point dip from his opening season in the Spoked-B.
The Good
Smith’s strongest stretch of play came in mid-February during a seven-game streak in which the winger recorded two goals and eight points. Streakiness was really the story of Smith’s season, too. Factoring in the aforementioned run in Feb., Smith had five different three-game point streaks this year.
Some other noteworthy 2014-15 performances from Smith? A Jan. 29 three-point showing in Uniondale in which Smith skated an effective game on the B’s top line with Milan Lucic and David Krejci. It was a short experiment every time, but one that really seemed to bring a better game out of No. 18.
The Bad
Smith’s finish to the season? Just plain brutal, man. In 19 games to end this season, Smith tallied just one goal, a mild four assists, and peppered 31 shots on net. He looked like a complete mess in all situations, he turned the puck over at an alarming rate, he rode the pine in almost all tight situations in the third-period (or at least it felt that way), and his confidence seemed shot.
The Future
The Bruins signed Smith to a two-year deal with a cap-hit just south of $3.5 million on Mar. 6.
This signing was, well, baffling. They inked Smith to this deal at the height of his 2014-15 play, and the play that followed (highlighted in ‘The Bad’) was anything less than that of a player worth that money. But he’s under contract, and unless the Bruins think he could be a moveable piece in a trade that brings in a bona fide top-line (or maybe top-six) talent, will be with the Black and Gold this fall.
Maybe that’s not the worst thing, either. Smith proved to be an effective top-sixer in his first year with the B’s, and if the Seguin dilemma taught you anything, it’s that you shouldn’t be so quick to abandon younger talents when they struggle. It’s part of growing up as an NHL talent, and last year’s struggles might actually prove to be a positive thing for Smith to go through in year two instead of year three.
The price tag is a little steep, sure, but if Smith can produce at a 40-50 point pace on the Bruins’ second or third line, then he brings a bit of reality back to the idea of the Bruins’ long-vaunted offensive depth.
At the same time, however, it wouldn’t exactly shock me if you hear Smith’s name tossed around a bit as a potential ‘throw-in’ in terms of both money and a younger player with term left on his contract if the Bruins make bids for any big name players that hit the trade market this summer.
Previous Bruins Year in Reviews
Gregory Campbell
Brett Connolly
Milan Lucic
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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