Bruins have signed former Hurricanes draft pick Matt Filipe.

The Boston Bruins have just signed a winger to their roster and I must admit the timing of this move does make it somewhat amusing. 

On Sunday the Bruins announced that they had signed forward Matt Filipe to a two-year entry level contract, Filipe was officially a free agent at the time of the signing. The 22 year old has spent the last 4 seasons of his hockey career playing for Northeastern University as a member of the Huskies. In the 2019 - 2020 season he recorded 9 goals and 13 assists for a combined total of 22 points in 30 games with the Huskies, both his assists and total points were career highs for Filipe at Northeastern. Over his 4 years playing collegiate level hockey Filipe appeared in 136 games for the Huskies and over that stretch of play he picked up 31 goals and added 44 assists for a combined total of 75 points. 

This is a relatively minor signing on the part of the Bruins but one of the things that does spice this one up a bit is the fact that the Bruins are effectively snatching away a former Carolina Hurricanes draft pick, the same Carolina Hurricanes they are currently facing in round 1 of the playoffs. The Hurricanes drafted Filipe in the 3rd round (67th overall) of the 2016 National Hockey League Entry Draft but for whatever reason the two sides never agreed to terms on a contract and following his 4 years of collegiate hockey this allowed Filipe to become a free agent much in the same way we saw forward Jimmy Vesey sign with the Rangers as a free agent despite having been drafted by the Predators a few years back.

To be clear here I don't believe that this was some sort of plan on the part of the Bruins to play mind games with their opponent, the timing here is almost certainly pure coincidence, there are several reasons why Filipe may have gone down this route. The young forward is a native of Lynnfield, Massachusetts and playing for the Bruins would allow him to be close to home. I suspect for this reason that the Bruins were pretty high up on his list once he became a free agent.