The Sheriff is back. The Bruins have turned to a familiar face to add some extra depth to their blue line down the home stretch of the season.
The club came to terms with veteran defenseman Shane Hnidy on Saturday, agreeing to a one-year deal. It will be Hnidy's second stint in Boston, as he spent parts of two seasons with the Bruins after being acquired from Anaheim for Brandon Bochenski on Jan. 2, 2008.
Hnidy, 35, was a respected leader in the locker room and valuable role player on the ice in his first stay in Boston. Nicknamed the Sheriff for the way he was always willing to come to a teammate's aid, Hnidy had 4-13-17 totals and 86 penalty minutes in 108 regular-season games and another 2-1-3 totals and nine PIMs in 14 playoff games.
He won't play nearly as much this time around. In fact, he won't be playing at all for the next few weeks. Hnidy has not played this season since suffering a shoulder injury in training camp while on a tryout with Phoenix this past fall.
He has been practicing with the Bruins since Wednesday, and showed enough to get offered a deal from the club. Once he is cleared to play, Hnidy isn't likely to crack the lineup right away.
The Bruins already have seven healthy defensemen with the big club, forcing coach Claude Julien to scratch one each night. Rookie Steven Kampfer was the most recent scratch on Tuesday in Calgary, but Johnny Boychuk sat out the previous game and Adam McQuaid had been a healthy scratch earlier in the season.
Hnidy isn't going to slot in ahead of any of those players, let alone regulars Zdeno Chara, Tomas Kaberle, Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ference. But Hnidy does add some valuable insurance if injuries hit, which has been a problem in the past. The Bruins have seen multiple defensemen sidelined in each of the last two postseasons, and having the ability to insert a veteran like Hnidy who has experienced the intensity of playoff action and is familiar with Julien's system could be very valuable this spring.
The Bruins obviously felt comfortable in waiting for Hnidy to heal, as they passed on an opportunity to claim former Bruin Nick Boynton on waivers on Saturday. Instead, Boynton was claimed by Philadelphia, where he'll join the team he helped beat in the Stanley Cup Finals last year while earning a ring with Chicago.
Hnidy last played in 2009-10 with Minnesota, putting up 2-12-14 totals and 66 PIMs in 70 games after leaving Boston to sign with the Wild as a free agent. Over 547 career games in the NHL, the 6-foot-2, 204-pounder has 16-55-71 totals and 631 PIMs with Ottawa, Nashville, Atlanta, Anaheim, Boston and Minnesota.
The Bruins also announced that Providence forward Kirk MacDonald has been signed to an NHL contract. MacDonald, who has 12-15-27 totals in 60 games with the Baby B's this season, had been on an AHL-only deal. He will remain in Providence, but is now eligible to be recalled to the big club if needed.
