The Bruins signed defenseman Steven Kampfer to a two-year contract yesterday worth $1.6 million dollars, which means it will carry a cap hit of $800,000 per season. Kampfer played well in his role as an extra defenseman last season, playing in 35 games and recording six points while being a -6. While that is not a good +/-, it’s also not a very useful stat as it doesn’t take into account the kind of minutes he was playing and who he was typically playing with and against most of the time. Given he played limited minutes in the games he played and was typically on the third pairing, he did his job well overall. He would also go long stretches between games and come out and play better than expected given how long he had off. However, I’m not entirely sure why the Bruins decided to resign him, as they already have eight defensemen on the NHL roster for next season as I don’t see Clifton being sent back down to Providence. They hey clearly think he’s ready to be in the NHL as they played him in the Cup Final when they didn’t have to. Yes, it’s good to have a surplus of defensemen as we found out last year when we were on our 10th-string defenseman (which funnily enough given where he is now was Clifton), but I’m surprised Kampfer didn’t want to go somewhere else where he could play more minutes. Obviously he likes it Boston and wants to stay and is willing to take on a very limited role to do so, which is good because you want your players to be happy where they are and to accept their roles. I hope that the reason he was the first player resigned by the Bruins offseason was because it was a really easy contract to negotiate, as there are significantly more important players that need new contracts (looking at you McAvoy and Carlo) that should be Sweeney’s top priorities. If he decided to do Kampfer first for any other season, we may be in for a rough offseason where things that need to get done don’t. I think we can officially put ourselves on trade watch for one of or both Moore or Miller, as it would be stupid to pay more than one defenseman (it’s not ideal to even pay one but I don’t think it would be smart to trade them both with the injury luck we’ve had these past few seasons) more than $2 million to be a seventh or eighth defenseman. It’s not ideal to even pay one but I don’t think it would be smart to trade them both with the injury luck we’ve had these past few seasons, but it’s a safe bet to say one will be gone, if not before training camp opens than once Moore comes back from his shoulder surgery a month or so into the season. I’d much rather pay a guy $800,000 to fill that role. I may dive into that more in another post soon but to wrap this one up, I like Kampfer’s new contract given how cheap it is, but I’m not sold on whether or not it was necessary (remind me of this when we get down to our 10th string defenseman again next year).
Hockey Addict 