Bruins claim RW Oliver Wahlstrom from Islanders

The Bruins need scoring and they don’t have much cap space. So when a cost-effective opportunity presented itself on Saturday, they took it.

The B’s, ranked 29th in offense (2.48 goals per game), claimed one time 11th overall pick Oliver Wahlstrom off waivers from the New York Islanders. The 24-year-old right wing’s cap hit for this year is $1 million. That leaves the B’s with $121,000 in current caps space, according to puckpedia.com. Wahlstrom is scheduled to be a restricted free agent this summer.

Whether Wahlstrom is the answer to the Bruins’ prayers is another question. A one-and-done at Boston College after being chosen by the Islanders in the 2018 draft, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Wahlstrom has not been able to produce at the NHL level as the Islanders had hoped. His most productive season was in 2021-22, when he had 13-11-24 totals. He has 36-35-71 totals in 220 NHL games. He played 35 games in 2022-23 before he tore his ACL, an injury that ended his season. He was limited to 32 games last season. He has two goals and two assists in 27 games this year.

The Portland, Maine native’s early claim to fame came when he was a young participant in the NESN’s Mini One-on-One competition and he scored a spin-o-rama lacrosse-style goal in the breakaway competition.

The B’s knew they’d be in search of right wing help at some point during this season when they allowed Jake DeBrusk to walk. DeBrusk, who signed a seven-year deal worth an annual cap hit of $5.5 million with the B’s Saturday opponent Vancouver Canucks, is on a heater after a slow start. He had 11 goals in his previous 10 games going into Saturday, including the game-winner against the B’s last month.

DeBrusk was allowed to sign elsewhere in part because the B’s wanted to get stronger down the middle. They signed center Elias Lindholm to a seven-year deal with an AAV of $7.75 million, but he has not been able to live up to that deal at least not yet. He has displayed strong defensive work, but offensively has not offset the loss of DeBrusk. He has just 3-10-13 totals in 31 games.

We’ll see how much of the void Wahlstrom will be able to fill.

 

 

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/sTv3756