What I like about the move:
+ The Bruins could use a bit of size and toughness up front.
+ I say this as a Danton Heinen fan... he's been pretty poor this year. Ritchie's not going to have to be great in order to be an improvement over the 2019-20 version of Danton Heinen.
+ Ritchie's another player who has the ability to drive possession and generate offense. The xGF/60 jumps off the page. Like Kase, there seems to be some potential for the production numbers to take a step forward if he's surrounded by better talent.
+ Another $1.3+ million saved that can be used to sign Krug and DeBrusk this summer. Also like the fact that Ritchie's under contract for next year, and then he's still only an RFA.
What I don't like about the move:
- When Heinen is "on", he's been a better, more valuable player than Nick Ritchie. It feels like the Bruins are selling low.
- Those xGF numbers that are encouraging? They always seem to outpace his actual goals scored. Sometimes when your xGF/60 is higher than your GF/60, that can be explained away by saying it's bad puck luck. When it happens consistently, you start to wonder if he just can't finish.
- The penalty numbers are stupid ugly, bordering on obscene. There's a really good chance that he's going to take a number of bad penalties down the stretch and into the playoffs. Some of those penalties will cost the Bruins goals, if not games. I mean... it's literally nearly off-the-chart bad.