Tim Schaller played all over the B’s roster in 2016-17

Evaluation:

Tim Schaller has never played more games than he did this year in his career.

He certainly never had to play all the positions Boston made him play over the course of the year.

Boston had him usually slotting in as a winger or a center over the course of 58 games, where he’d go from 4th line wing all the way up to second line wing in a truly desperate case, playing alright though in some cases clearly out of his depth. He was much better suited to duties in the depth, attempting to keep the puck away from Rask and helping to bolster the strength of the third line and being yet another very good addition for the fourth line. Using some pretty surprising speed, some decent hands and a solid shot, he was quite an interesting weapon in his shifts.

Helping this was the fact that he was a very opportunistic player, often catching goaltenders with their pants down in transition or whenever they made a greivous error, typically sending home some of the more interesting goals the Bruins would score all season:

Unfortunately, like many things this year, Tim Schaller was cursed with unluckiness. For one thing, he was usually one of the least-good players at actually keeping the puck on a team that was able to keep hold of the puck After taking a bizarre landing in a game vs. Detroit in early March, Schaller had to sit out for the rest of the regular season, where he returned on relief of an injured Noel Acciari. He did pretty well once again with the Fourth line, and had a goal off of a poorly executed play by Craig Anderson.

Tim will likely line up to have his salary arbitrated and then will have to play for his life to stay on the team with the wave of youth now taking part in the lineup. If he’s able to bring the effort he brought this year, I think he’ll be just fine.

Grade: C+

There’s really little wrong with his game. It’s just good shifts in-and-out for about 10-15 minutes a night and playing solid defense on the fourth line and third line, and playing alright in the interim. He wasn’t exactly a high-octane scorer and was very rarely asked to be.

Stats:

Age: 26

Games Played: 59

Goals: 7

Assists: 7

Points: 14

Playoff Statline: One goal

Shooting-%: 7.9%

Final Aggregate CF%: 49.40%