Reacting to Bruce Cassidy's WEEI appearance, Bruins' signing of Jesper Boqvist
Add another player to the competition for Bruins forward jobs. The team announced on Wednesday that it has signed Jesper Boqvist to a one-year NHL contract worth $775,000.
Boqvist, 24, had 10 goals and 11 assists in 70 games for the Devils last season while playing 11:36 per game. He was in and out of the lineup in the playoffs and finished with zero points in six postseason games.
Boqvist, who is listed at 6-feet, 180 pounds, was a second-round pick (36th overall) for New Jersey in 2017. The Swede would have been a restricted free agent this offseason, but the Devils did not issue him a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent instead.
A left shot, Boqvist can play wing or center, although his faceoff numbers in the NHL have been poor (36.2% through four seasons). He had good defensive metrics last season, though, as his 1.90 goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 play ranked third among Devils forwards.
Boqvist has also exhibited some strong finishing on a limited number of shots, shooting 14.2% over the last two seasons, including a team-best 15.9% at 5-on-5 last season.
With Boqvist in the fold, the Bruins now have 11 forwards signed to one-way NHL contracts. Trent Frederic remains a restricted free agent, with an arbitration hearing set for Aug. 1 if the two sides can't work out a deal before then. Boston currently has $5.4 million in cap space, according to Cap Friendly, and also still has restricted free agent Jeremy Swayman to sign.
Boqvist joins Morgan Geekie, Milan Lucic and Patrick Brown as offseason signings that are expected to figure into the Bruins' bottom-six plans. James van Riemsdyk could end up in either a second- or third-line role.
On Tuesday, the Bruins also signed Marc McLaughlin to a one-year, two-way contract that carries an NHL cap hit of $775,000. McLaughlin is one of a number of younger players who could challenge for an NHL job, along with the likes of Jakub Lauko (signed on a two-way contract for this season), Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov, Johnny Beecher and Oskar Steen.
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