Haggerty: Spooner deal represents his last chance with Bruins

The Bruins and Ryan Spooner wisely came to a contract agreement on a one-year, $2.825 million deal just prior to the start of Wednesday’s arbitration hearing. Don Sweeney hasn’t yet taken a B’s player to arbitration during his three years running the Black and Gold, and it could have grown unnecessarily contentious with a player like Spooner if they’d been forced to point out his flaws as a player in the uncomfortable setting of an arbitration hearing. “It’s a fair deal for both sides in our opinion,” said Spooner’s agent Murray Kuntz to CSN after the one-year contract had been agreed upon.  Now that Spooner has been signed to the one-year deal, it represents the last chance for the 25-year-old

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  Spooner, Bruins settle on one-year, $2.825 million deal

  CSNNE.com
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  Bruins, Ryan Spooner avoid arbitration with 1-year deal

  The Associated Press

Zibanejad jumps at opportunity to be Rangers’ No. 1 center

It’s reasonable to assume that the New York Rangers were comfortable trading Derek Stepan in part because they believed Mika Zibanejad could step into the No. 1 center role. That puts a lot of pressure on Zibanejad, who’s never been the top pivot on an NHL team before. If that wasn’t enough, now he’ll need to justify the first big contract of his career (seeing his cap hit rise from $2.625 million to $5.35 million). At least he isn’t oblivious to this challenge, and as the Rangers website notes, he’s actually super happy* to raise the stakes. “I think even before signing, seeing Derek being traded was a little bit of an alert to me that I might get a chance to play a bigger role,” Zibanejad said.

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  What Mika Zibanejad said about his deal, New York and more responsibility

  SNY
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  Canadiens Sign Mark Streit

  The Hockey Writers

Islanders Season in Review: John Tavares

Andy Graziano and I have begun our annual season review, taking a look back at the 2016-17 Islanders and analyzing each player's performance in a down season that saw the team miss the playoffs by one point. We will be offering two reviews per week that will take us right through to the beginning of training camp in September. Of course, there are a couple of things to sort out prior, such as free agency and potential trades that could alter the look of this franchise going forward. Contract details via nhlnumbers.com and stats courtesy of hockeyreference.com. 91 - John Tavares - Center 6-1, 211lbs 26 years old Contract: $6.000 m cap hit, signed through 2017-18 (UFA) Season: 77 GP, 28 G - 38