NHL Free Agency: Craig Smith signs with the Boston Bruins
By Nick Herrera
The Boston Bruins found a bargain in NHL free agency by signing Craig Smith.
NHL free agency began on Friday at noon EST. Due to the inability to host fans and have its typical revenue situation, the NHL decided to not raise the salary cap for the 2020-2021 season. That has made the 2020 offseason more difficult for general managers and more interesting for hockey fans. One drawback has been the snail-like pace that free agency began at.
After plenty of the goalie questions were answered, T.J. Brodie signed in Toronto answering a few of the outstanding questions. Saturday morning, we got another answer.
Nine-year veteran Craig Smith signed a three-year contract with the Boston Bruins valued at a total of $9.3 million. Smith had played his whole career in Nashville with the Predators.
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Smith has scored at a 20 goal pace in six of his nine seasons and is good for 40 points a year. Smith is one of the free agents with the least amount of questions.
Almost every free agent has a question about declining performance and how a long term contract could burden a team towards the end of the term. Smith, however does not have questions about his two-way/defensive play (Matt Hoffman, Anthony Duclair we are looking your way) nor questions about his consistency (like every goalie ever).
Smith looks like a good fit in Boston via the eye test alongside veterans like David Krejci and Charlie Coyle. Maybe not the most flashy trio ever, but savvy and hard working. A typical Boston blue-collar type of line.
As for the Bruins as a whole, they now have about $12 million in projected cap room. That is without re-signing Jake Debrusk who remains a restricted free agent. We cannot forget that Boston’s captain of almost 15 years, Zdeno Chara, remains an unsigned free agent.
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Additionally, the B’s have been linked to some of the Alex Pietrangelo rumors that are still spinning as arguably the biggest fish in free agency also is still without a team.