What does the Jean-Gabriel Pageau signing mean for the Bruins?

Jean-Gabriel Pageau is an irritating player. He was an annoyance during the Bruins’ first-round playoff loss to the Senators.

He’s not all that different from Brad Marchand in that he likes to stir things up, but he’s nowhere near Marchand’s caliber.

ANYWAYS. Why are we spending valuable pixels talking about Jean-Gabriel Pageau?

No, you didn’t accidentally stumble onto Silver Seven Sens; this actually is relevant to the Bruins.

The Senators signed Pageau to a three-year, $9.3 million dollar deal today.

Pageau was a restricted free agent who had filed for arbitration. With a hearing looming next week, the Sens locked him up to avoid the always-awkward arbitration process.

The Bruins face a similar situation with one of their restricted free agents: Ryan Spooner.

Spooner filed for arbitration a couple of weeks ago, having been given a qualifying offer back in June. His hearing will be coming up relatively shortly.

The Pageau deal offers an interesting means of comparison for the Bruins, and could give a glimpse at what fans can expect with regards to Spooner.

Here’s how the two stack up:

As you can see, they’re pretty close overall.

The weird thing, of course, is that Sens fans are happy that Pageau is back in the fold, while many Bruins fans are ready to write Spooner off entirely.

Spooner has a higher upside than Pageau. He’s a more dangerous offensive player, and is one of the more explosive players on the Bruins roster.

However, he has frequently found himself in the doghouse with the coaching staff, while Pageau has been appreciated for his grinder/nose-to-the-grindstone style.

What this means is that while Pageau and Spooner are comparable in terms of age, stats, etc., they’re different in terms of what’s expected of them.

Pageau is expected to be a hard-nosed type who chips in offensively; Spooner is expected to be a dynamic, two-way center who excels on the power play.

This deal for Pageau gives the Bruins and their fans an idea of what a Spooner contract could look like.

Of course, the Bruins could opt to offer him more, Spooner could accept less, or the Bruins and Spooner could go to arbitration and say all kinds of terrible things about each other.

Isn’t the offseason fun?