Welcome to the final edition of 2016-2017 Bruins grades! Today, we will be looking at two forwards from the Bruins 2015 free-agent class that struggled during the 2016-2017 season in Matt Beleskey and Jimmy Hayes.
Beleskey
Inside the regular season numbers: 3 goals, 5 assists, 8 points, -10
Inside the postseason numbers: 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points, -2
Grade: D-
Beleskey’s 2016-2017 campaign was a huge disappointment.
Last season he found the back of the net fifteen times in eighty games. During this season however, he managed only three in forty nine games.
Beleskey missed over a month of the season because of a knee injury and once he was healthy he struggled to find playing time. Cassidy opted to make him a healthy scratch more often than not.
Beleskey made an appearance in the post season after a slew of injuries, but he was a non factor for the Bruins offense.
Beleskey showed promise in the past, but his performance in the 2016-2017 season is a major disapointment to the Bruins faithful.
Hayes
Inside the regular season numbers: 2 goals, 3 assists, 5 points, -3
Inside the postseason numbers: N/A
Grade: F
There isn’t any way to sugar coat it, Hayes 2016-2017 campaign was terrible.
Hayes struggled to find playing time because he failed to take advantage when given ice time. He was unable to generate any offense and was no help on defense.
To make things worse for Hayes, he had to fight a lower body injury for most of the second half of the season.
The struggling forward missed the post season because of his lower body injury, but even if he was healthy, Bruce Cassidy would likely have opted to make him a healthy scratch.
It may seem brutal to keep piling it on him, but Hayes did nothing for the Bruins at all this year and given that he is approaching a contract year, he isn’t likely to be in Boston much longer.
