Where do Brett Ritchie, Par Lindholm fit on Bruins’ roster for 2019-20?

With a little over $10 million in cap space remaining and three RFAs still to sign in Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Danton Heinen, it looks as though the Bruins have just about closed up shop when it comes the free-agent class of 2019. 

And while that means the Bruins are likely set to enter the new season without winger Marcus Johansson, Don Sweeney and his team still made the most of what little cap room they had to work with — completing seven transactions on Monday, headlined by a three-year extension for Connor Clifton and a pair of NHL contracts handed out to forwards Brett Ritchie and Par Lindholm. 

While they may not resonate as much as other free agents that inked deals on Monday such as Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, both Ritchie and Lindholm figure to earn regular reps in Boston’s bottom-six next season, especially with Noel Acciari joining the Florida Panthers on a three-year deal. 

Both Ritchie and Lindholm seem to be locks to make the roster out of training camp this fall, but their specific roles on the 2019-20 Bruins seem to be a bit up in the air, given the number of question marks in Boston’s lineup and a backlog of bottom-six skaters. 

With Ritchie and Lindholm added to the fold, let’s reassess Boston’s forward corps and see where some of these pieces might fall in the coming months. 



When assessing the expected returners up front, as well as the fringe/younger players set to fight for a roster spot come September, Bruce Cassidy and the B’s have a litany of options when it comes to constructing a starting lineup. 



Obviously, we can sort out the locks and figure that some of the fat on the above list will be trimmed by the time regular-season play gets underway. Barring the Bruins’ whiffling multiple times on finding a way to get David Backes’ contract off the books, it seems like a given that the veteran will be playing elsewhere next year, while Paul Carey, Zach Senyshyn, Trent Frederic, Brendan Gaunce and Peter Cehlarik seem to be on the outside looking in. 

Given Sweeney’s comments last week that the Bruins would want to keep Jack Studnicka at center, perhaps Boston’s top prospect spends some time down in the AHL ranks to start the season, given how Boston has four great pivots already in regular roles in Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Charlie Coyle and Sean Kuraly. 

How Boston chooses to roll out it's forwards next year will likely be determined by a domino effect up top — starting with how the B’s choose to solve the vacant spot to Krejci’s right on the second line.

If the B’s chose to slot down David Pastrnak and add a winger like Anders Bjork into the mix for reps alongside Bergeron and Brad Marchand, then things become a bit easier to parse through. Finding a replacement for Johansson on the third line will not be easy, although a speedy, hard-nosed player like Karson Kuhlman could be a solid addition on a line featuring Coyle and Danton Heinen — while this could also be a spot for a winger like Oskar Steen to get a look if he impresses during training camp. 

But even if that solves the third line, there wouldn’t be much movement on Boston’s final forward trio with Nordstrom-Kuraly-Wagner expected to return. So where exactly do Ritchie and Lindholm go?

Based on Sweeney’s comments on Monday, a physical, hard-hitting winger like Ritchie (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) would not be added as a pure replacement for Acciari, who brought added value as one of Boston’s go-to PKers (a facet of the game that Ritchie was not tasked with handling down in Dallas). 

Just two years removed from a 16-goal campaign, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if Ritchie gets some looks further up in the lineup if Boston fails to get much traction on the wing. 

“I’d say most of them come from within 15-foot circle around the net,” Ritchie said of where he generates most of his goals from. “Obviously not every one. But a lot of them are rebounds around the net, driving the net getting a stick on it. Maybe a bang-bang play backdoor, a lot of stuff in tight like that seems to be where I have the most success. … I’m never going to stray away from my game.”

His game may not be flashy, but Ritchie’s style can be effective on a cycle-heavy line, as well as a potential net-front option on a second power-play unit. 

“He’s got some net-front,” Sweeney said of Ritchie. “To be able to recover pucks and obviously he’s a big body there, and he can shoot the puck. He’s got areas of his game that we’re going to hopefully continue to work on and some gaps there, but again, the puck possession, the ability to skate, certainly getting in on the forecheck and puck separating in that regard and getting into the hard areas have to be staples of his game."

Based on his 5v5 impact last season in Dallas, there is a bit of a risk in hoping that Ritchie can show the same level of production he generated back in 2016-17. However, given his style of play, Sweeney believes there’s a fit on this roster, and that the chances will be there for Boston's new power forward.



“There was a size. There was a physicality,” Sweeney said. “There was a right shot. He checked a lot of the boxes. Is he ideal in the sense that we know he’s going to score 16 goals? No, I can’t sit here and tell you he’s going to go back to that level because he hasn’t in the last two years. We just tried to do our due diligence, compared to several other players, and that was the direction we went. Hopefully, we’re right. Hopefully, he recognizes the opportunity in front of him, and he can take full advantage.”

While one can expect to see Ritchie figure pretty regular into Boston’s rotation at RW, Lindholm stands as much more interesting subject in terms of where to best maximize his potential. A natural center, that might be wishful thinking given the amount of depth Boston possess at the pivot both up in the NHL and in its prospect pipeline.

Cut a bit from the same cloth as a fellow Swede in Nordstrom, Lindholm figures to be a reliable penalty killer wherever he is slotted into the lineup, with Boston expecting more than just a single goal from Lindholm in his second full year up in the NHL ranks. 

Averaging 16.5 goals in his last two seasons in the Swedish Hockey League, Lindholm boasts plenty of plus-skating ability and skill, and figures to put together a much more well-rounded scoring output next season — similar to how Nordstrom went from two goals over 75 games with Carolina in 2017-18 to seven goals over 70 games in Boston the following year.

He may not get many reps beyond a role on the fourth line, but Lindholm has the chance of being a breakout candidate on this B’s club if he continues to adjust to the NHL game. Don’t overlook him come the fall. 

“I got the opportunity, I think, three years ago to go play in the NHL,” Lindholm said. “I turned it down because I didn’t think I was ready for it. So, I had a good year in Sweden, the opportunity came again with Toronto. I was happy with my improvement that year, thought I was ready, so that was pretty much it. 

Lindholm added: “I think, I am happy with how I played last year. But when I look at it I am pretty sad I didn’t do more. I didn’t feel out skated or stuff like that. I think I played pretty good but couldn’t just score. I think the confidence went pretty low and I don’t know. I think have a lot more to give in this league, I really do.”

While it seems like Boston’s latest free-agent signings don’t have much of a defined role on next year’s club — don’t forget that this feels like a similar situation as to how Nordstrom and Wagner were brought aboard last summer. Sure, they were expected to be bottom-six contributors, but would there be regular minutes? 

Well, 82 games and a slew of injuries later, both Wagner and Nordstrom factored heavily into Boston’s success in 2018-19, logging 76 and 70 games, respectively in their first year with the B’s. 

While Boston is hoping the injury bug doesn’t bite quite as hard in 2019-20, it seems to be an inevitable consequence of a long season of hockey. And if such occasions arise in which Boston needs to draw from its depth in order to stay afloat, both Ritchie and Lindholm stand as more-than-adequate solutions.