The Bruins reached the 10-game mark with Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Senators, so we figured it was a good time to take a step back and look at how Boston’s five offseason free-agent signings have performed so far.
Don Sweeney was the most active general manager in the NHL early in free agency, signing all five of these players on the day it opened. They were clearly priorities for him, and players he and his staff believed would improve the team in key spots.
So far, the results have been mixed, to be generous. For the purposes of this exercise, we are just going to grade the players’ play so far, as it is still too early to come to any sweeping conclusions about the contracts as a whole.
Linus Ullmark: C
The Bruins’ biggest signing in terms of years and money (4 years, $20 million), Ullmark has basically been a league-average goalie so far. Through five starts, he hasn’t had any really bad games, but he’s had three where he was just fine in addition to two really good outings. Among the 54 goalies who have played at least three games, Ullmark ranks 24th in save percentage (.918), 35th in 5-on-5 save percentage (.922), 45th in goals saved above expected (-2.83), and 51st in high-danger save percentage (.739).
That last number would be the most concerning, as it tells us that Ullmark is bailing out his teammates at a well-below-average rate, but it has to be noted that it is also the smallest sample size, as we’re only talking about 23 high-danger shots faced so far. Ullmark was also much better on those types of chances last season, when he ranked ninth, so there is still reason to think he’ll improve on that front.
Derek Forbort: C-
On the plus side, Forbort is actually tied for the team lead in 5-on-5 goals with two. On the negative side… is a lot of other stuff. Forbort has struggled defensively quite a bit, and that’s supposed to be the strength of his game. He has been on the ice for eight goals against, which ties him for the most on the team. His 3.21 goals against per 60 minutes places him 163rd among 186 defensemen who have played at least 100 5-on-5 minutes this season. Forbort has not really clicked with either Charlie McAvoy on the top pairing (the Bruins have been outscored 3-0 in their 69 minutes together) or Connor Clifton on the third (outscored 5-2 in 44 minutes).
In the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that Forbort is generally getting the toughest defensive assignments on the team. He also leads the team in penalty-kill minutes. And it’s not really his fault that the Bruins, for some reason, thought he was going to be the answer next to McAvoy. Perhaps Forbort will eventually settle into a comfortable home on the third pairing and be just fine there, but so far the process of trying to figure out where he fits hasn’t been particularly smooth, despite the two goals.
Erik Haula: D
The effort has generally been there from Haula, but he wasn’t brought in just to give an honest effort. He was brought in to center a third line that was -- and is -- supposed to produce more offense than last year’s third line. So far, that hasn’t happened. Haula has no goals and one assist through 10 games. The Bruins have been outscored 5-2 at 5-on-5 when he’s on the ice. He has the worst Corsi (48.1%) of any Bruin who has played more than one game. He hasn’t been able to use his speed to create chances, and he hasn’t really clicked with Jake DeBrusk the way it looked like he was going to, despite DeBrusk playing pretty well so far. Haula has been great on faceoffs (60%), but that doesn’t make up for the rest of it.
It does need to be noted that Haula has not had any consistency on his right wing yet. It was supposed to be Nick Foligno there (more on him to come), but he has been out since the second game of the season. Foligno is expected to return Thursday night, and Bruce Cassidy said he will either go back with Haula or go to the second line with Craig Smith dropping down to the third line. Perhaps one of those two will help jumpstart Haula, but he needs to be better himself regardless. He should be helping to drive his line, not having to rely on his wingers to do that.
Tomas Nosek: B
Nosek has been pretty much as advertised. He’s been a solid fourth-line center who has taken care of business defensively (he’s been on the ice for just one 5-on-5 goal against so far) while also chipping in on offense with a goal and two assists. He’s held his own when he’s moved up in the lineup due to injury. He leads all Bruins forwards in shorthanded minutes. He’s been a positive possession player despite a lot of shifts starting in the defensive zone. Sure, the Bruins would probably like a little more offense from the fourth line, but the bigger issues in terms of scoring depth are with the second and third lines. No complaints about Nosek here.
Nick Foligno: Incomplete
As we mentioned, Foligno has only played a game and a half so far, so we really can’t judge him yet. That said, injuries were a concern when the Bruins signed him, so it certainly isn’t ideal that they’ve already reared their ugly head. Foligno is expected to return Thursday night, and there is definitely some pressure on him to help swing the Bruins’ depth scoring fortunes. The team and fans will appreciate his leadership and physicality no matter what, but as is the case with Haula’s speed and effort, Foligno was not brought to Boston just for that. He was brought here to be an offensive upgrade in the middle six, and that will remain the expectation.
All stats from Natural Stat Trick, Evolving-Hockey, Hockey Reference or NHL.com.