Ryan Spooner is going to play for the Bruins next year. That should not surprise anyone.
He and the Bruins avoided arbitration; they agreed to a one year deal worth $2.825 million. Good for both of them. The arbitration process is brutal. That’s what Johnny Damon’s book said. They rag on players and make them feel like they’re terrible in those meetings.
It could be Spooner’s last year with the Bruins now. He’s 25 and the Bruins have a lot of good young players in their system. It’s why they didn’t protect Colin Miller in the expansion draft, after all.
Spooner has been a third line center for the Bruins, when healthy. He put up 11 goals and 28 assists in 78 games last season. The year before however, he put up 49 points. Last year, he was a 39 point guy. He is a forward but as the year went on, Spooner started becoming less productive. Why? Part of it might have to do with Bruce Cassidy, the new Bruins head coach. He is certainly more offensive-minded as a head coach than Claude Julien. One might think that would give Spooner the opportunity to flourish, but it did not.
Serious point: Spooner is not very good on faceoffs. He only won 38.92 percent of them last year. In his career, he has only won 42.4 percent of them in his career. He has been incompetent on them. That gives the other team the puck more and increases their chances of scoring when he is on the ice. If he cannot improve this, then why would the Bruins want him at center? He seems like he belongs more at the mall.
Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, the Bruins second round draft pick from a couple years back, is competing for the third line center job after two pretty good years at BU. He’s only 20. Not bad.