Winnik ends PTO with the Bruins and signs with another team.

Bruins lose a valuable option.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Winnik ends PTO with the Bruins and signs with another team.
Rene Jones Schneider/Star Tribune/Zuma

The Boston Bruins have lost a very solid option they had for forward depth on their roster this season.

According to an official report from Geneve-Servette HC, a team in the Swiss National League, the organization has signed a brand new contract with veteran National Hockey League forward Daniel Winnik. There have been rumors for a few days now that this move would in fact be coming down but with Geneve-Servette HC making an official announcement it now seems like there is no doubt that Winnik has in fact left the Bruins organization.

The veteran forward was coming off a solid season with the Minnesota Wild in which he appeared in all but 1 of the Wild's 82 games in the 2017 - 2018 NHL regular season. Over those 81 games winnik would record 6 goals and add 17 assists for a total of 23 points. Additionally as has consistently been the case throughout his career the strong puck possesion forward finished with a positive plus minus rating of +5 on the year. In spite of his relatively good performance last season Winnik was entirely unable to secure himself an NHL contract during the offseason and by the time training camp came around the 33 year old forward had not received any concrete offers. 

Winnik would then get around to eventually signing a professional tryout with the Boston Bruins and that tryout is where he remained during all of training camp and through the National Hockey League's preseason. Now however it seems fair to suggest that Winnik was not satisfied with simply waiting on the sidelines in Boston in the hopes that one player could fall out of favor or could end up injured resulting in him getting an actual NHL contract. Winnik instead was fielding offers from organizations over in Europe and it appears that when he got the chance to join a team that would let him play he opted to go with that offer instead.

The departure of Winnik will remove a valuable option for the Bruins in terms of depth but the organization still has NHL veteran Lee Stempniak on a professional tryout offer so it's not like Winnik was their only option.

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