Bruins sign Craig Smith

cshea

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They are paying him $2 million but the cap hit is $3.1 million.

It's a good signing. Smith is pretty underrated.
 

Salem's Lot

Andy Moog! Andy God Damn Moog!
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Jul 15, 2005
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I like Craig Smith. Big body who consistently scored 20 goals on Nashville teams that weren’t exactly loaded up front for many of those years. He can finish around the net which they could use more of.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Great deal at $3.1m and term won't kill them by any means. 2/2 so far given Miller can be waived to Providence without any cap impact if needed.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Solid move to help fortify the top 9, years and money won’t kill them and he’s not too old—durable player through most of his career.

This is not my area of expertise but according to the chatter I’ve seen, Smith is an analytics darling.
 

TheRealness

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Good value and they needed this type of depth in their top 9. He’s also got some size to go along with his skill.

I am curious as to what else they do, but I like this in a vacuum. Not sure if it makes it less likely they get Hall though.
 

veritas

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Right Wing has gone from a huge weakness to a strength in less than a year. Pasta/Kase/Smith is fantastic. To me, Smith seems like the perfect player to play with Krejci. He drives possession and is very good at getting high danger scoring chances.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Mar 5, 2007
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I like the Smith deal a lot. Anyone who agrees with me that they shouldn't sign Hall (if they can)? Good player, but I think he's going to end up being an overpay for the team that signs him.
 

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
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Well it also should’ve been illegal to let Kase on the ice during the Tampa series. Generating points would be nice eventually. And I say this as someone who likes analytics, just not a be all, end all
 

Dummy Hoy

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Last month or so Smith has been excellent. Not scoring at the rate you’d like, but he’s pretty smart and works his sack off.
 

joe dokes

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Smith isnt nearly as skilled as Hall and Krejci, yet he seems to complement them very well. He almost never seems to be the sand in their gears, which I feared at first.
 

tonyandpals

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The play he made last night to get the puck to Krejci before he went double toe drag was a thing of beauty.
 

cshea

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Smith has fit in nicely. He's never really put up huge counting stats because of limited ice time, particularly PP ice time. Since 2018/2019 he's 15th among RW in goals per 60 and 22nd in points per 60 at even strength. Puts him ahead of guys like William Nylander and Alex DeBrincat. His 0.97 goals per 60 is right behind Patrick Kane's 0.99. Pretty good company to be keeping, though you probably never would've guessed it given he's only broken 40 points once in the past 6 seasons.

Theoretically, his production him in as a first line RW on half the teams in the league. Score one for the analytics department.