He’s older, married with a 2-year-old daughter, and back with the Bruins after a three-year tour through Buffalo and Pittsburgh. But the game Connor Clifton took with him upon leaving Causeway Street in the summer of 2023 is exactly the same — and precisely what he intends to roll out when Cliffy Hockey Part Deux starts up next month.
“I’ve always tried to play an emotional game and play hard,” Clifton mused recently after his morning workout at Warrior Arena in Brighton. “That’s exactly what I’m going to bring. I don’t think I need [general manager Don Sweeney] to tell me that, or ask me to bring that, because that’s exactly what I will be bringing.”
When last seen in Black and Gold, Clifton led the record-setting 2022-23 club in hits (208), a season after he also led its defensemen in that category with 156 smacks.
Signed originally to an AHL contract, Clifton matured quickly into a fast, strong skater with a penchant for delivering well-timed hits that had the potential to change the complexion of games.
Which is why he’s here again, to help a Bruins backline gone somewhat soft in his wake.
For the last two seasons, the thump back there too often became the sole responsibility of Nikita Zadorov, who has no trouble providing contact, though too often at the expense of his being sent to the penalty box. With Clifton on the beat, Zadorov’s primary role as a shutdown D-man will remain intact, but he won’t have to be as occupied with the nickel-and-dime stuff that too often turned into pricey penalties.
At least that’s the theory.
“I think I made it to the league playing that way, and I think I stay in the league playing that way,” said Clifton, reflecting on what the contact game has meant to his career. “As you mature, get older, maybe you pick your spots a little bit more — you don’t want to miss and give up a chance, right? You never want that.”
During his first season with the Sabres, who signed him to a three-year, $10 million contract as a free agent after 4½ years with the Bruins, an overzealous Clifton was tagged with a two-game suspension for a high hit on Devils center Nico Hischier.
“I tried to time a good hit and it was a little off,” he recalled. “I got him in the head … two-game suspension, and obviously you don’t want that. Brutal. But it is so fast. We’re talking milliseconds, right? I’m going for his shoulder and, boom, I miss the shoulder by [an inch] and I get his head. That’s no good. With age, you learn.”
Clifton is part of a deep collection of backline riches that coach Marco Sturm will have to sort out in a hurry. An abbreviated training camp will lead into the league returning to an 84-game regular season.
Sweeney also in July traded with the Rangers for Will Borgen, who will factor in the top four with Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Zadorov. The math of it all has Clifton shouldered among a group of blue liners — including Mason Lohrei, Henri Jokiharju, and eager rookie Frederic Brunet — vying for the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots on the roster.
The numbers back there could compel Sweeney to deal one or two defensemen, but Clifton ($4.5 million guaranteed for the next two seasons) is here to stay. His penchant for separating bodies from pucks is what sets him apart.
Clifton also is the second known engineering graduate to play for the Bruins.
“I’ve always been a numbers guy,” noted Clifton, one of 12 (with brother Tim) to earn a mechanical engineering degree from Quinnipiac in 2017. “It was tough to get through, but I’m glad I did it.”
Thirty-plus years ago, Joey Juneau arrived on Causeway with a degree in aeronautical engineering from RPI. The high-producing winger was traded in March 1994 to the Capitals for Al “The Planet” Iafrate. Juneau, from Quebec, spoke only fragments of English when he arrived on the RPI campus.
“So I had to learn a new language on top of all the engineering stuff,” said Juneau when interviewed years after he retired. “I look back and wonder, what the [bleep] was I thinking?!”
Tim Clifton, who played forward the four years his brother played defense at Quinnipiac, turned his ME degree into a career, initially with a US Navy contractor in Virginia. Connor Clifton pretty much stuffed his sheepskin in a drawer and went off to find the NHL footlights, but his initial days at AHL Providence briefly had him considering tuning up for an ME exam that is de rigueur for engineering graduates.
“I had so much time to myself,” he recalled, “so I went and got my boating license. Then I bought the book ‘Fundamentals of Engineering’ to study for the exam. It was like four months after I graduated in May, maybe a little more. So I get the book, open up to the first page, and I said, ‘Oh my God, this is bad!’ I shut the book and gave it to my brother.”
Any intention of ever turning back to it?
“Nope!” said Clifton, with a conviction as strong as one of his open-ice hits.
CALDER CANDIDATES
High five line up for Rookie of the Year
A Zamboni-entrance view of the five NHL newbies best positioned ahead of the new season to be the 2026-27 Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year. (In the interest of freshman fairness, we’ll list alphabetically.):
▪ Anton Frondell, C, Chicago — Stepped into the Blackhawks lineup from Djurgardens (Sweden) at the end of March and posted 3-6–9 in 12 games. Impressive start, albeit without the pressure that comes with a team vying for a playoff spot. A speedy, smooth playmaker/puck distributor and the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft. Imagine the size of the offer sheet the Flyers will drop on him in the summer of 2028.
▪ Cole Hutson, D, Washington — Slick and mobile along the blue line, like brother Lane in Montreal, he walked in from the Boston University campus in March — days after the Capitals abruptly wheeled legend John Carlson to Anaheim — and delivered an impressive 3-7–10 in 14 games. How was he still available at No. 43 in the 2024 draft? Lane Hutson was chosen as ROY in 2024-25. Matthew Schaefer (Islanders) won it last season, the first time the Calder has gone to defensemen back-to-back. Hutson Deux could make it a hat trick.
▪ Porter Martone, RW, Philadelphia — The biggest (6 feet, 3 inches, 210 pounds) of the top incoming frosh, he was poised and polished in both his short regular-season stint (4-6–10 in nine games) and playoffs (2-3–5 in 10) with the Flyers. Because of his size and game sense, he’ll be considered by many as the top candidate. Picked No. 6 in 2025, followed by James Hagens at No. 7 (Bruins), Martone produced 25-25–50 with Michigan State and stepped seamlessly into the Flying P’s top six.
▪ Gavin McKenna, LW, Toronto — The lottery’s ping-pong balls popped right and the Maple Leafs snared the No. 1 pick in the draft for only the third time in franchise history (Wendel Clark, 1985; Auston Matthews, 2016). McKenna enters as a light-framed winger with uber-sized skills, leading to expectations that it could take a season or two for him to grow into the role of top-end NHL scorer. He’ll also have to deal with the pressure of working in front of the league’s most demanding, and often unreasonable, fan base. It will be fascinating to witness the rollout.
▪ Ivar Stenberg, LW/RW, San Jose — Perhaps forever to be known as the pick after McKenna, Stenberg played the last season and a half for Frolunda and has the advantage of stepping into a rising, hot Sharks lineup that appears to be on the cusp of emphatically shaking off the run of seven playoff DNQs. A prime candidate to work to the left or right of the sublime Macklin Celebrini, who is fresh off being inked to a five-year/$94 million extension. Stenberg’s 68 games competing among Sweden’s best could give him a running start out of the Calder chute.
Eight Bruins have won the Calder since it was first awarded for 1932-33: Frank Brimsek (1938-39), Jack Gelineau (’49-50), Larry Regan (’56-57), Bobby Orr (’66-67), Derek Sanderson (’67-68), Ray Bourque (’79-80), Sergei Samsonov (’97-98), and Andrew Raycroft (2003-04).
Brimsek, Orr, and Bourque are among the 35 Calder winners in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Quiz No. 1: Who was the most recent Calder Trophy winner also named to the HHOF? (Hint: He’ll be a regular presence in Toronto this season.)
ETC.
Big group nears grand milestone
The 2025-26 season concluded with 27 NHLers poised to reach the 1,000-game plateau this season.
Topping the list is defenseman Ian Cole (990 games), who signed a one-year, $4 million free-agent deal with the Blackhawks. The former Notre Dame blue liner, 37, played the full 82-game slate the last two seasons in Utah. Chicago will be his 10th NHL outpost.
Entering the weekend, a handful of the hopefuls, including ex-Bruin Reilly Smith, had yet to cut deals. Other than Smith (988 games), the other four who could be facing the end-of-career reality: fellow forwards Brandon Saad (984), Ryan Reaves (962), and Luke Glendening (934), and defenseman Travis Hamonic (926). Glendening, who turned pro as an undrafted free agent after four years at Michigan, started out with the 2011-12 AHL Providence Bruins, then began his long NHL journey with the 2013-14 Red Wings.
Given that all five are within a stick length of the 1,000 mark, it’s a good bet they’ll accept training camp tryouts in hopes of joining a club that today includes 421 members, led by iron man Patrick Marleau (1,779).
Only seven of the 27 on the cusp of reaching 1,000 have spent their entire careers to date with the same club: Casey Cizikas (Islanders), 978; Mark Scheifele (Jets), 961; Sean Couturier (Flyers), 952; Morgan Rielly (Maple Leafs), 951; Nathan MacKinnon (Avalanche), 950; and Anders Lee (Islanders) 923. All of them, other than Lee, will return to their “forever” teams this fall. Lee left Elmont, N.Y., as an unrestricted free agent in July to sign a three-year, $16.2 million deal with the Mammoth.
Elias Lindholm (969 games) is the lone Bruin who could reach 1,000 this season. Others with Boston stops on their resumes include Taylor Hall (Hurricanes), 989 and Dmitry Orlov (San Jose), 949.
Alex Ovechkin, who turns 40 on Sept. 18 at the start of Capitals camp, will enter the season atop the list of NHLers to play the most games (1,573) with only one team. (Sidney Crosby has played all his 1,420 in Pittsburgh.)
In July, Ovechkin signed a one-year, $4.25 million extension. He’ll enter his 22nd year in D.C. with his scoring meter starting at a record 929 goals. His assist mark of 758 is 1,205 shy of Wayne Gretzky’s record 1,963.
Quiz No. 2: Eight longtime Bruins are among the 421 NHLers on the 1,000-game list. Name the three who spent their entire careers only in Black and Gold.
Poitras unsigned
Matt Poitras, who may or may not factor into the Bruins’ center equation, remains unsigned as a restricted free agent. He can’t begin to factor into that pivot puzzle unless he comes to terms after his entry-level contract, a standard two-way deal with a salary of $82,500 at the AHL level, expired. The majority of Poitras’s time was spent with AHL Providence the past two seasons.
Three years into his pro career, Poitras has played 69 NHL games and produced seven goals and 20 assists. Modest numbers, which don’t help build his case at the negotiating table for a substantial raise, or perhaps so much as a one-way deal.
Faced with a similar contract case, the Penguins on Aug. 6 rolled out a whopping $32 million for the next eight years to unproven winger Ville Koivunen, whose modest NHL production line reads 2-12—14 in 47 games. GM Kyle Dubas obviously is convinced the 6-foot Finn, also with three years pro experience, has a promising/productive career arc. If so, the average $4 million-per-year payout could look like chump change in, say, 2-3 years. It also could look like a drastic overpay.
Poitras and the Bruins have slightly more than a month to figure out if he’s going to be in uniform for the start of varsity camp on Sept. 16.
Former Providence teammate Georgii Merkulov, significantly more productive, moved on to the Avalanche in July. Colorado did not ink “Merk” to a one-way deal, but his contract, as published by puckpedia.com, will guarantee him $400,000 even if he is not promoted from the AHL Eagles.
Fellow ex-WannaB Fabian Lysell also will be in the Colorado camp. The former Round 1 draft pick (No. 21 in 2021) was shipped to the Avalanche on July 1 for Finnish forward Ivan Ivan — you are not seeing double, dear reader. Colorado guaranteed the speedy, light Lysell $190,000, with the chance, like Merkulov, that he’ll make $850,000 if he remains on the NHL roster.
A deal similarly structured here for Poitras might promise him, say, $300,000, were he to remain in Providence, and upward of $1 million as a member of the varsity. Hardly the riches Koivunen will enjoy, but no two franchises run their books the same.
Loose pucks
Quiz No. 1 answer: Stellar Senators winger Daniel Alfredsson was named the 1995-96 Rookie of the Year (26 goals, 35 assists) and later inducted into the HHOF in Toronto. “Alfie” this summer signed on as associate coach with the Maple Leafs … Quiz No. 2 answer: The three Bruins with 1,000 or more NHL games who never suited up for another franchise: Patrice Bergeron (1,294 games), David Krejci (1,032), and Wayne Cashman 1,027) … While Bergeron’s No. 37 will be placed in the TD Garden rafters on Dec. 1, Cashman’s No. 12 is long overdue for its place in the heavens, as is Gerry Cheevers’s No. 30. Your faithful puck chronicler has imposed a five-cents-per-day late fee on the Jacobs family for not retiring those two sweaters. Combined, Cashman and Cheevers have been out of Black and Gold for 89 years, which works out to $1,624.25. If we compound that at the rate the Bruins have jacked ticket prices since the departure of those two legends in the early 1980s, we’re talking Big Dig levels of billions. Make it right, Delaware North, or we’re coming for the popcorn machines and the pizza scissors that carved up those 35-cent slices in the old Garden’s concourse.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.