Bruins stuck with Zac Rinaldo

At the time it seemed like a good signing.

A pretty good forward with great character. Yeah, Zac Rinaldo was going to have quite the impact on the Boston Bruins. Oh yeah, except he didn’t. And now they’re kind of stuck with him.

The young forward wasn’t exactly a major impact player with the Philadelphia Flyers before coming to Boston, but he came with a handful of NHL experience. He was young and looked like someone who could be a decent third line wing. Yeah. We should probably talk about that.

Rinaldo was criticized heavily last year for not doing anything with the Bruins. So pretty much, he underwhelmed and it turned out the Bruins had some guys they liked better than him.

Being the NHL reporter I have been — like three times in my life — I was even at a press conference once where Don Sweeney said something to the effect of, “it seemed like a good idea at the time,” when asked about the Rinaldo signing. And no, I didn’t ask about that.  Sweeney definitely right about that though.

It did seem like a good move at the time. But it also shows they probably don’t think much of him anymore. That’s why they sent him down to Providence, where he was suspended for an illegal hit.

Just think about this list of names for one quick second: David Backes, Riley Nash, Dominic Moore, Peter Mueller, Ryan Spooner, Noel Acciari and Seth Griffin. Those are guys competing for third and fourth line jobs. So yeah, there’s not really a spot for Rinaldo, albeit the B’s gave up their 2017 third rounder for him.

They didn’t trade him this past offseason either, so maybe there’s not much interest in him. Or they like him as a depth guy. But to sum it up, he’s probably going to be a ghost again.