Bruins Add a Ryder

New surroundings are looking to help out the inconsistent play of forward, Michael Ryder, this season in Boston. Ryder was signed to a new 3-year deal, worth $12 million with the Bruins and hopefully, it will be a breath of fresh air to the 28-year old winger.

Twice a 30-goal scorer in the league with Montreal, Ryder couldn't seem to get it together last season, scoring 14 goals in 70 games and adding 17 assists to go with them. It was a very up & down year, where he even saw some games from the press box as a healthy scratch. With a team like Boston, he'll find a few players who are very similar to him and his style of play, which should compliment the winger and he shouldn't quite feel the same amount of pressure that he did in Montreal. This does bode well for him and his stock could very well be on the rise again.

Signing Ryder wasn't the only move for Boston. The Bruins also picked up free agent, Blake Wheeler, who declined a contract offer from Phoenix earlier in the summer to become an unrestricted free agent. He signed an entry-level deal on Tuesday and will report to camp this Fall for the Bruins to try and make the team.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Marc Savard	Zdeno Chara	Tim Thomas
Marco Sturm	Andrew Ference	Manny Fernandez
Chuck Kobasew	Aaron Ward
Phil Kessel	Shane Hnidy
Michael Ryder	Mark Stuart
Glen Murray
P.J. Axelsson
Milan Lucic
David Krejci
Peter Schaefer
Shawn Thornton
Patrice Bergeron
Vladimir Sobotka
Jeremy Reich

The addition of Ryder to the line-up, now has the roster up to 21 players at a salary cap hit of $52.3 million. That leaves $4.4 million left towards the cap ceiling and they still need another top six defenseman. This could mean that Matt Lashoff or Andrew Alberts will finally get a solid shot at some full-time work with the club, as they are both signed on for next season and would be considered fairly inexpensive against the cap.