Grade the Players: Chris Wagner was good, but not great this season

Grade: C+

Chris Wagner entered the 2019-20 season coming off a career year, but his second season with the Bruins saw his production fall. Much like the rest of the fourth line, his performance this year was adequate, but you wanted to see more.

Wagner finished the season with totals that were just under half of what he produced the season prior.

In 67 games, he amassed six goals and four assists for a total of 10 points. (That was down from 12 goals and 7 assists during the 2018-19 season). He finished -8 with 78 shots on goal before the season was cut short in March.

One game separated two long periods of time where he didn’t register a point. He was in a drought for 12 games from December 9, 2019 to January 4, 2020, finally scored a goal on January 7 and then had an 18-game stretch following that in the height of the season where he didn’t register a point until February 22.

Wagner also had 13 games from November into December where he was on a dry spell. That’s 64% of the season he spent in three lengthy pointless streaks. He finished the season with only 10 games of +1 or better.

One of his best games was early in the season on October 29, 2019 when he registered a goal and assist against the San Jose Sharks.

Both points came because he was strong on the puck and controlled the play.

Wagner is a better player than his stats show. When he’s working the puck down low behind the net and cycling with linemates like Sean Kuraly, he illustrates his importance to the team. I think a lot of the inconsistency with production numbers had to do with quite a few players shuffling through the fourth line this year. It’s hard to build chemistry and score that way.

The Bruins’ spot in the standings at times overshadowed how badly scoring was needed from guys like Wagner. The right winger’s slightly disappointing production in the regular season (in comparison to the season prior) seemed to mirror the sentiment of the fourth line in general.

The line struggled to produce the secondary scoring that the Bruins desperately needed despite maintaining leads.

In this year’s playoffs, Wagner appeared in 12 games. He netted two goals and one assist. Both goals were in the round robin. He picked up a secondary assist in Game 4 of the Eastern First Round against the Carolina Hurricanes.

It’s a broken record, but more scoring from guys like Wagner during the playoffs could have provided the boost the Bruins needed to possibly (but probably not) beat the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The more Wagner shoots, the better his numbers are for that season. He shot half as much this season as the year prior and in return, scored only half as many goals.

He does create nice opportunities for himself and his team when he stays on the puck and with the play so hopefully the scoring will come back next season.

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