Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Bruins Yelle to Their Roster

The Boston Bruins announced on Wednesday that they had signed unrestricted free agent centre, Stephane Yelle, to a 1-year deal worth $750,000.

Yelle, 34, played with Calgary for the last five seasons and had been one of the key defensive centres on team through his tenure, taking a lot of the defensive face-offs in key situations. Yelle doesn't have much to any fantasy value, as he only registered 12 points (3G, 9A) last season with the Flames and doesn't see a lot of offensive ice-time.

He should be able to bring the Bruins some good defensive work in their own zone and a little more depth down the middle on the third or fourth line.


ForwardsDefenseGoaltenders
Marc SavardZdeno CharaTim Thomas
Marco SturmDennis WidemanManny Fernandez
Chuck KobasewAndrew Ference
Phil KesselAaron Ward
Michael RyderShane Hnidy
Glen MurrayMark Stuart
P.J. Axelsson
Milan Lucic
David Krejci
Peter Schaefer
Stephane Yelle
Shawn Thornton
Patrice Bergeron
Vladimir Sobotka
Jeremy Reich


Heading into camp in a couple weeks, the Bruins could dress a full 23-player roster if need be, but there will be some good competition for the last couple forward spots and there should be a defensive opening, in lieu of taking all 15 forwards listed above.

The team doesn't carry a great deal of pool value into the coming season, but they do carry a lot of potential. Injuries last season to Marc Savard, Patrice Bergeron, Michael Ryder and Manny Fernandez do hinder the season previous' numbers, so they could very well be a little dark horse farm in Beantown for your pool team. If the team's scoring can flourish this year, Tim Thomas could be a great pick early in the pool.

The listed 23-man roster above, does carry some good value, coming in at an approximate cap hit of $53.6 million. Great work by GM Peter Chiarelli in Boston to put together a good team on paper for good value on the books.

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