With the NHL’s announcement of a slight increase in salary cap to $88 million for next season, the Boston Bruins now have just under $23 million to use to try and upgrade the roster. A skilled center, scoring forward, and left-shot defenseman are on the wish list for Bruins’ General Manager Don Sweeney. With the top-six center being a priority and the most challenging out of the three wants, the Bruins might look for cheaper options on the trade market to fill some holes. One name that has popped up recently is former Bruins’ right wing Reilly Smith. The Pittsburgh Penguins have expressed a desire to trade the 33-year-old forward, and a return to Boston could be a destination.
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Smith was a third-round selection in the 2009 NHL Draft by Dallas and later traded on July 4, 2013, to Boston as part of the Tyler Seguin trade. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound forward played two seasons with the Bruins, scoring 33 goals with 58 assists in 163 regular-season games. In 12 playoff games, Smith scored four goals for Boston and was considered an up-and-coming young player. However, the Bruins traded Smith on July 1, 2015, almost two years to the day they acquired him, along with the contract of Marc Savard to Florida for Jimmy Hayes in one of Sweeney’s most criticized trades.
Smith totaled 87 points in two seasons in Florida before moving on to Vegas where he would be a key player in their 2023 Stanley Cup run. In 13 seasons, the Mimico, Ontario native has 213 goals and 300 assists in 840 regular season games and 79 postseason points in 106 games. Smith has been a steady two-way forward and could provide a solid bottom-six veteran presence for Boston.
The issue might be with the contract. Boston would surely not want to pay $5 million next season for Smith, who scored 13 goals this season. However, some salary retention from Pittsburgh could get a deal done. A possible scenario could be a third-round pick and $2 million retained to give Boston a more palatable $3 million cap hit. There were questions about Smith’s happiness in Boston, who performed a full rebuild in 2015 when Sweeney took over as general manager. But this is a different regime with a new leadership group.
As the Bruins sift through their many options, Reilly Smith might resurface as an old friend looking for a new start.
