Boston Bolsters with Beleskey

Among all the cutting of costs in Boston, the Bruins were still able to go out into the free agent market and try to improve their club. On Wednesday, they snagged one of the bigger prizes in forward Matt Beleskey, signing him to a very reasonable 5-year deal, worth $19 million.

Beleskey was rated quite high by some pundits, leading up to the free agent frenzy, thanks in large part to his 22-goal campaign in 2015.  But with only 32 points total on the year in Anaheim, the numbers were not going to be too substantial or at least, they shouldn't have been.

In terms of scoring, the 27-year old was 177th in scoring for forwards, 259th overall.

It will be interesting to see how Beleskey will fit into the Bruins lineup, especially as the overall identity of the team is changing.  Given that he was a trigger man for the Ducks last year, I think you would start to look at the talent that might be able to get him the puck in scoring situations and guys like David Krejci or Patrice Bergeron offer interesting options.

I'm not necessarily sold on Beleskey breaking out substantially in Boston, but if he finds some regular time with a good centre, there is some potential for some slight gains in his pool projections for the 2016 season.