The Bruins added Mike Reilly at the trade deadline to try to shore up their back end and evidently, they liked what they saw from him. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the defenseman has agreed to a three-year contract with a $3MM AAV.
The 28-year-old has bounced around in the early going of his career, spending his first few years with Minnesota, Montreal, and Ottawa. However, after having a limited role for most of that time, everything seemed to click for Reilly last season. He picked up 19 assists in 40 games with the Sens which bolstered his trade market and Ottawa was able to flip him to Boston at the deadline for a third-rounder, a two-round upgrade on the pick they sent to the Canadiens to acquire him the year before.
With the Bruins, Reilly was asked to take on a bigger role than he was accustomed to with Boston’s back end being banged up. He responded quite well, picking up eight more assists in 15 games while logging over 21 minutes a night. That continued in the playoffs as he chipped in with four assists in 11 postseason contests while again averaging more than 21 minutes per game.
That had Reilly well-positioned for a strong market in free agency but instead, he’ll stick around with the Bruins, doubling his previous contract in the process. Meanwhile, Boston now has at least one more veteran in place on the left side of their defense corps but it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Don Sweeney try to add another one over the coming days to help make up for last summer’s departures of Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara.
John Moore says hi.
Damn that’s a good deal for team and player. I never would have guessed Reilly would have built his value and improve as much as he did from when he entered Ottawa to this point. Good for him.
Imo he’s the reason why losing Jeremy Lauzon in the exp draft wasn’t a big deal ya it hurts because he was young but he had his fair share of injures
Definitely does not suck.
Thought he would get more than that from another team based on his play after the trade last season. He fell off some in the playoffs but he was a vital piece in the last half/third of the regular season. Good move for the B’s, now go out and sign Forbort to pair with McAvoy and you have 3 pretty solid pairings.