REPORT: Bruins GM rips into impending free agent

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has been pretty tight lipped all season about what his plans are for re-signing his team’s restricted free-agents (RFAs) David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner. Well, this morning on Boston radio’s Toucher & Rich broadcast the B’s GM held back nothing when discussing Spooner’s future in Boston.

“It was well-documented with Claude he didn’t like his defensive game and some of the other things. For me, I didn’t like his offensive game at the end. He wasn’t playing to his strengths, and that bothers me about players, if they’re not able to play to their strengths when the temperature of the game goes up. “ Ouch. So his former coach didn’t like his defensive game and his current GM doesn’t like his defensive game. What’s left? Do they at least like his haircut?

Whatever the future holds for Ryan Spooner, whether he continues his NHL career in Boston or elsewhere, he really has no one to blame but himself. His lack physical play combined with lacklustre offensive production means he could be on the outside looking in of the Bruins’ plans for next season. 

To finalize his thoughts on Spooner, Sweeney concluded with, “Listen, we all know he’s not that guy that’s going to be planting himself in front of the net and absorbing hits every shift, but he still needs to attack with the puck when there is some open ice,” Cassidy said. “And like I said, there wasn’t a lot, but there were creases out there where he could have used his foot speed, and that was the conversation with him. When those situations arose, we needed him to make his plays and attack. It didn’t happen, so we moved on to the next player.”