Don Sweeney On James van Riemsdyk Adding To Bruins Net Front Presence

The Boston Bruins made a lot of moves on the first day of free agency by signing nine different players to varying contracts.

One of the goals for general manager Don Sweeney was to add depth to the forward corps whether or not Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci return for the Bruins’ centennial season.

“Our depth at the front was where we tried to address most of the needs, and again, with an eye towards allowing some of the younger guys to see if they can come in and take their jobs,” Sweeney told reporters on Saturday, per team-provided transcripts. “We still have to hear a final word both from David Krejci and Patrice [Bergeron], so we’ll keep an eye and an ear out for that and cross our fingers that maybe that falls our way.”

With or without the two veteran centermen, the Bruins lost some of their net front presence with the trade of Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks. Sweeney addressed their departure by signing 14-year veteran James van Riemsdyk.

“JVR has had a lot of success at the net front. He can slide on either power play unit or compliment those groups,” Sweeney said. “Jake [DeBrusk] has done a good job, despite a torn tendon and broken fibula, he scored two pretty important goals in the Winter Classic game.”

van Riemsdyk has scored 87 power-play goals in his career along with 64 assists on the man advantage. However, last year with the Philadelphia Flyers, the 34-year-old forward only registered four special teams points.

“JVR has had a lot of success at the net front. He can slide on either power play unit or compliment those groups.”

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney on the addition of James van Riemsdyk

“It’s probably a combination of everything, I’m not going to speak about how he was fully utilized in Philadelphia, that’s their business,” Sweeney explained when asked about van Riemsdyk’s lack of production. “How he’d be utilized here, opportunities, sometimes there is a little bit of puck luck, sometimes you might say that in the 15-20 games where we went pretty dry, and you were wondering why guys are not all of a sudden scoring.

“Power plays generally go through those spurts and players can go through those spurts, but it will be incumbent upon him to make sure that he gets back into those areas and bares down and scores how he normally would, but again, everyone goes through a little bit of it and you have to work through it.”

van Riemsdyk is looking to work within Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery’s system, which he believes he can thrive in.

“The style of game that I kind of bring some net front presence, some smarts, hockey sense, things like that, I think it definitely fits in well with how the team likes to play and how Monty tries to coach the team,” van Riemsdyk told reporters on Saturday. “I think just even watching from afar last year, just watching the style that they’d try to play, definitely seemed like one I thought I could fit in well and definitely relying on your hockey sense, relying on your skill to play the game the right way.”