Defensemen? Goalies? Nah, another forward! As obscure former Boston Bruins players continue to get profiled, we're sticking up front with forward Brett Connolly, who had a stop with the Bruins in his 11 seasons in the NHL.
Connolly was chosen in the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had the sixth overall pick. The Bruins had the second pick in that draft and used it on Tyler Seguin. Connolly was chosen from the WHL's Prince George Cougars, who have produced NHLers like Dan Hamhuis, Zdeno Chara, Dustin Byfuglien, and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
After playing another year with Prince George after being drafted, Connolly signed an entry-level contract ahead of the 2011-2012 season and made his debut that year, producing four goals and 11 assists in 68 games. Over the next two seasons, he played just 16 games combined and had two goals and no assists as he spent the majority of the time with the AHL Syracuse Crunch.
Connolly was up for good after that, netting 12 goals and three assists in 50 games in 2014-2015 for the Lightning. That was when he was traded to the Bruins for a pair of draft picks that became Boris Katchouk and Matthew Spencer. He played in five games after the trade, getting two assists and no goals.
2015-2016 was Connolly's only full season with the Bruins, in which he had nine goals and 16 assists in 71 games. Over the summer, he signed a one-year contract with the Washington Capitals and had a solid year, picking up 15 goals and eight assists in 66 regular season games, going pointless in seven playoff games.
Connolly spent two more years with the Capitals after that, being a part of their Stanley Cup winning team in 2017-2018. After his three years in Washington, he signed a four year deal with the Florida Panthers. After a 19 goal, 14 assist season in 2019-2020, Connolly's career began to decline.
In year two of his contract, he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in a large trade. After spending all but nine games of 2021-2022 in the AHL, the Blackhawks bought out the remainder of his contract.
Connolly then went overseas, spending the 2022-2023 season with HC Lugano in Switzerland, producing 12 goals and 26 assists in 45 games. He spent 2023-2024 with the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers also in Switzerland, getting in just nine games with only one goal to his name.
