All stats courtesy of hockeyreference.com.
My next player profile is defenseman John Moore! Moore appeared in 61 games for the Bruins last season, in which he tallied four goals and nine assists. He then played in ten playoff games for the team on their run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, but he failed to record a point in any of them. Drafted 21st overall of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, Moore has appeared in 508 career NHL games, over which he has produced 36 goals and 76 assists. The 28-year-old defenseman joined the Bruins as a free agent in the 2018 offseason, and he has played for a total of five different organizations over his nine season NHL and professional career.
Moore’s season started off strong for the Bruins and he looked like he’d be as advertised, which was a good thing, but things soured pretty quickly. He’s known as a smooth-skating, puck-moving defenseman who’s also a big body that isn’t afraid to be physical, and at the start he seemed to be that way. But, he then started to struggle significantly defensively, often making poor and costly decisions in his own zone, and he wasn’t as good at moving the puck as he was initially. He also doesn’t put up as many points as you’d hope he would given he’s known as an offensive defenseman, although it has been that way throughout his career, so that wasn’t exclusive to this season. But anyways, Moore’s contract is not looking good now (although I wasn’t a fan of the term to begin with), as he still has four more years left at a $2.75 million cap hit. If all goes as it should during camp, he’ll have been passed on the depth chart by Connor Clifton even when he’s healthy, and he’ll find himself as the team’s seventh or eighth defenseman when everyone’s healthy. It’s unfortunate for him and a far from ideal situation for the team given his cap hit, but the Bruins play a completely different system than his former team in the New Jersey Devils, and he never adjusted to it as it clearly doesn’t suit him very well.
As for what we can expect out of Moore next season, it’s really tough to say. We already know that he won’t be ready to start the season due to a shoulder surgery he had following the team’s playoff run that the recovery time for was said to be four to six months. When he does return, he’ll almost certainly be in the press box unless there are injuries or Clifton doesn’t play well enough to stick in the lineup (which is unlikely in my opinion). Also, Kevan Miller will likely have returned before him, and I think he’ll be above him on the depth chart, so even if Clifton doesn’t stick Miller will be in that spot. If Moore does crack the lineup though, hopefully, he rebounds from last season, but he’ll have to shake off some significant rust first. If he can adapt to the Bruins system and return to form, it’d be nice to have another slick-skating, puck-moving defenseman, which is what he brings to the lineup when he’s at his best. But, it should also be mentioned that Moore and/or Miller may be traded before or at some point during the season, as it’s far from ideal to be paying $5.25 million for two defensemen to sit in the press box most nights. The team desperately needs more money to resign Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy, and the team has nine NHL defensemen currently, not counting Vaakanainen who looks like he’s ready but will be stuck in Providence given how many other options the Bruins have. So, it seems likely that they clear cap space by moving either Moore or Miller, and possibly both of them. But, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens over the course of this upcoming season.
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