If anyone hampers the Bruins cap, it will be Matt Beleskey, not Jimmy Hayes.
At worst Jimmy can be buried where a significant portion of his cap hit can be buried and an ELC type player can take his place.
As well Jimmy will be in the final year of his deal, so there will be no long Term impact there either.
Since this is the Stafford thread. I would be more receptive to keeping him next season if he plays well, if they can ditch both Beleskey and Hayes opening up two slots. As well I wouldn't want anything over 2 years and would prefer it to be 1. Bruins have more than enough Wingers coming up in the system they don't need people bogging them down.
Guy has solid puck presence. Very active in all zones. Def not a passenger. Seems to fit right in. Whats not to like.
His goal tonight was very Horton-esque.
Kinda reminded me of a Ryder type goal lol. I swear 85% his goals were top shelf
I know it's probably too early to even be thinking about this, but what the heck: is Stafford someone we ought to consider signing for next year? I would imagine he'd could be signed for less than he's making now.
Stafford may not have ideal speed or size, but his biggest asset is experience. He won't be rattled down the stretch and he has a history of being a streaky guy that can be very effective when he gets hot. He's not afraid to get his nose dirty or go to the net.
Plays a very simple game, and it's in that simplicity that he gets results.
I really like this pickup.
People Stafford has a long established history. We are talking about him like he's a rookie with no track record
People who write off 31 year old because of a bad season on a bad team usually look like fools. Stafford has been a steady 20 goal scorer so offensive talent is to be expected.
But Stafford has never been someone a winning team can count on to give solid consistent effort in the top 6
Enjoy if he plays well... He's certainly capable of it... But also expect bad games. He's no savior but he should be an upgrade over Hayes or be belesky and that's ok
People Stafford has a long established history. We are talking about him like he's a rookie with no track record
People who write off 31 year old because of a bad season on a bad team usually look like fools. Stafford has been a steady 20 goal scorer so offensive talent is to be expected.
But Stafford has never been someone a winning team can count on to give solid consistent effort in the top 6
Enjoy if he plays well... He's certainly capable of it... But also expect bad games. He's no savior but he should be an upgrade over Hayes or be belesky and that's ok
He looks plenty big on the ice to me. He's no crash and banger but he's not gonna be knocked off the puck.
He's bigger than I thought, 6'2" and a little over 200 pounds. For some reason I thought he was 5'10"-11".