A good find who played his role well enough.
James van Riemsdyk’s 2024 rating: 5.8
In the thrifty summer of 2023, Don Sweeney made a number of smart, low-money signings that paid dividends for the Bruins.
Danton Heinen likely takes the crown as “Biggest Bargain,” but James van Riemsdyk threw his hat into the discount ring with a solidly productive 2023-2024 season.
The former Philadelphia Flyer signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Bruins last summer.
Coming off of the least productive season (PPG-wise) of his career, van Riemsdyk was looking for a bounce-back year, and he mostly got it.
He actually outscored Heinen points-wise, with one more point in three fewer regular season games.
And while the season wasn’t a head-to-head competition between the two, it’s interesting to note the difference in each player’s rating: Heinen got a laudable 7.7, while van Riemsdyk earned a more muted 5.8.
Part of the reason van Riemsdyk was brought to Boston, aside from a cheap price tag, was to boost the Bruins’ power play, specifically the second unit.
In that task, he largely succeeded.
Averaging a little more than two minutes of PP time per game, he scored six of his 11 goals on the man advantage.
van Riemsdyk played up and down the lineup for Jim Montgomery, usually on the third line but sometimes on the fourth...or second, or first, or ninth, or whatever else Montgomery blended together.
For the most part, he was an effective player — but his game began to trail off a bit as the season progressed.
To illustrate that point: van Riemsdyk recorded 22 of his 38 points from October through December; the 2024 calendar year wasn't as kind to the former University of New Hampshire kid.
To be fair, he had a decent January and February, but things declined from there.
(It’s also worth mentioning that he dealt with a minor injury early in 2024 and a bout with an illness in March, so those things shouldn’t be discounted.)
van Riemsdyk ended the regular season in and out of the lineup, with one point (an assist) in his last 20 regular season games.
He’d be in the press box for the first two games of the Toronto series, but drew back in for Game 3 and played the rest of the playoffs.
He finished with a respectable playoff stat line of 1G-4A-5PTS in 11 GP.
From van Riemsdyk’s persepctive, his stint with the Bruins should be considered a success.
He improved on his 2022-2023 points total and still nearly cracked 40 points in spite of a career-worst shooting percentage (7.7%) and the lowest ATOI since his rookie season.
And from a Bruins’ perspective, you got a decently productive (albeit uneven) season from a guy playing for just above the league minimum salary.
Overall, it was a win-win.
(Plus, he played in the 1,000th regular season game of his NHL career last season, a pretty cool milestone.)
van Riemsdyk is currently a free agent, and seems like the kind of guy who might wind up on a PTO somewhere once training camp begins.
I wouldn’t be opposed to bringing him back for similarly short money, but the Bruins likely feel like they got a good bridge season out of van Riemsdyk and are ready to go with more youth.
While he didn't set the world aflame, van Riemsdyk ended up being another worthy gamble by Sweeney.
