Boston Bruins Sign James Van Riemsdyk

The Boston Bruins are signing forward James van Riemsdyk to a one-year, $1MM deal, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.

The Bruins are looking to add some talent to their forward corps at affordable prices, and securing Van Riemsdyk at a $1MM cost accomplishes exactly that. The 34-year-old is a seven-time 20-goal scorer who has hit 30 goals multiple times earlier in his career. He has notably slowed down in recent seasons, though, and only scored 12 goals and 29 points in 61 games.

That decline in production is what allows Boston to secure his services at such a cheap price, though, and in doing so they’re placing a bet that he can return to something closer to his 2021-22 production, when he scored 24 goals and 38 points. Van Riemsdyk has long been among the most talented net-front scorers in the NHL, and he’ll boost the Bruins’ efforts to crowd the front of the net and tip pucks in.

He might not bring the type of energy or scoring ability of younger talent like Tyler Bertuzzi, but he comes at a far cheaper price and brings a wealth of experience younger players can’t offer.

With Boston looking to have another strong regular season and go on a longer playoff run, this addition of van Riemsdyk is a solid bit of shopping by the Bruins front office, assuming the player can stay healthy and perform up to his career standard.