Bruins claim Gemel Smith

[cshea]

per Friedman.


24 year old center that was waived by Dallas. He was drafted by them in 2014 but hasn’t broken through. 77 NHL games played over 3 seasons, 11-9=20. Seems like bottom 6 depth, which they aren’t exactly in need of. Probably a better center than Acciari.

 

[veritas]

His underlying numbers were great last year. Great shot quality metrics, and 5v5 points per 60 in limited minutes.

This year they look pretty bad. But he's worth taking a flyer on, agreed hes' a better center than Acciari. Anecdotally, I follow a couple of Stars fans/writers on twitter and they're sad to see him go.

 

[tmracht]

Average size at 5'11" - 195lb Left Handed.

Not a great sample on him over those 77 games, 70/157 for 44.6% face-offs but he wasn't taking many of them this year (2/4 for 50%).
Last year he got about 9.5 minutes a game, this year he was about 8 minutes, with a strong slant of only using him in the Dzone this year (47.5% Ozone Start last year and 28.8% this year).
He was actually an okay player last year with a CF of 53.6, but down to 35.6 this year.

He's my 3rd Line Center on my Anchorage expansion team in NHL19 and he's good so there's that.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

I like this move. There's a need and an opportunity for a center, and Smith doesn't look like a top 6 guy but might have some potential as a bottom 6 Riley Nash type. Why not? Low risk, potential decent reward.

 

[catomatic]

How'd he look last night? I only saw a few minutes of the third period and heard his name but once.

 

[cshea]

His line (Kuraly and Wagner) wasn’t great so he only had 30% possession. He seemed as advertised. Speedy, good skater. Had 2 SOG and drew a penalty.

Edit: He seems like a better Acciari which is all they are reallly asking for.

 

[catomatic]

His line (Kuraly and Wagner) wasn’t great so he only had 30% possession. He seemed as advertised. Speedy, good skater. Had 2 SOG and drew a penalty.

Edit: He seems like a better Acciari which is all they are reallly asking for.

Thanks. I love Acciari's thumping hits but he's pretty glacial.