Injuries? Already? B’s Likely Lose Whitfield For Season

Trent Whitfield, who had one point in 16 games last season, will likely miss all of 2010-11 with a torn Achilles tendon.

Bruins fans are all too familiar with the injury woes that surrounded their club in 2009-10. In fact, most get nauseous when recalling the turbulent season where the club lost 187 man-games to injury. With Marco Sturm‘s road to knee surgery recovery already testing the depth of the Bruins to begin the season, the depth of the depth will be tested with a likely season-ending injury to the Achilles tendon of  Providence Bruins captain and part-time Boston Bruin Trent Whitfield.

Originally signed by the club last off-season to replace the veteran presence left by Jeremy Reich‘s departure to the Islanders organization, the 33-year old Whitfield captained the AHL Bruins and posted 17 goals and 43 points in 43 points with Providence along with a point in 16 contests at the NHL level. Appearing in four playoff contests for Boston including a tremendous Game 6 against the Flyers in a losing effort, the loss of Whitfield has done more than hamper the Providence Bruins’ need of a captain on their squad.

Now while the contributions of Whitfield weren’t measured in goals, penalty-kills, or points for the club, the seven-season NHL veteran brought experience and bottom-six support that could be plugged into the line-up as a capable stopgap. While the club did bring Reich back to organization this past summer, the bigger concern for Boston could lead to the lack of a steady fill-in if and when injuries hit the club.

As Reich has proven at the NHL level, he’s merely a scrapper. He’s not going to kill penalties, and he’s not going to win face-offs. Ipso facto, the Bruins need an AHL center capable of logging some NHL time if need be.

In a pool teeming with fringe-level talent, a name down the middle that the P-Bruins should look into include but is not limited to Wyatt Smith. Still without league employment, the B’s certainly should seem to be in the market for a filler in the organization.

Smith, a ninth round draft choice back in ’97, spent last season with the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Penguins where he put up 48 points in 76 games. Standing at 5’11″, the 33-year old pivot has 211 games of NHL experience with 32 points, his latest taste of the bigs coming in 2007-08 where he played in 25 games for the Colorado Avalanche.

Certainly not going to make the difference between winning and losing a Stanley Cup, I personally don’t expect to see the B’s stand pat in terms of adding one of these fringe-players to even out their roster in the potentially rare event that last seasons injury concerns rear their head once again for the cap-strung Bruins.

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