{"id":138640,"date":"2023-07-02T08:46:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T12:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=138640"},"modified":"2023-07-02T08:46:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T12:46:19","slug":"former-boston-bruins-defensemen-signs-new-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/02\/former-boston-bruins-defensemen-signs-new-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Boston Bruins Defensemen Signs New Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/cliftco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Clifton<\/a> has a new contract. After spending his young career with the Boston Bruins, he has chosen to sign with the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/01\/buffalo-sabres-bring-back-tyson-jost\/\" target=\"_self\"> Buffalo Sabres<\/a>. Clifton is locked in for the next three years and has a total value of $10 million per life of the contract.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WELCOME TO BUFFALO\u203c\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>We have signed defenseman Connor Clifton to a three-year contract worth $10 million.<\/p>\n<p>Details: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i61E1v8ijv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/i61E1v8ijv<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rvCZmwfmAG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rvCZmwfmAG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BuffaloSabres\/status\/1675187521959911425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Connor Clifton Signs New Contract<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This is an excellent day for Connor Clifton. After initially being drafted by the Arizona Coyotes, he has made a name for himself in Boston. Consistently, Clifton has played primarily on the third pair. There have been growing pains with the young defensemen, but he is coming off a career season. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Like younger guys like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/debruja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jake DeBrusk<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/fredetr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trent Frederic<\/a>, Clifton took off under new coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/montgji01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim Montgomery<\/a>. Clifton had a career year across the board, scoring five goals, 18 assists, and 23 points. He got comfortable generating offence and is not afraid to be physical. He is a smaller guy but plays a big guy&#8217;s game. Clifton was <a href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/stats.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">second on the team<\/a> in hits (208) and blocked 120 shots. However, one area that was evident all year and in the playoffs was his giveaways (47). Some were untimely, but that is part of the process. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What This Contract Means<\/span><\/h3>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For Clifton<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As much as he may have wanted to stay in Boston, Connor Clifton earned this contract. Given the salary cap issues the Bruins ars facing, he secured his pay raise on the open market. He can build off the strong season he had and can bring that to his new club. <\/span><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For The Team<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You can never have too much defensive depth. That is what the Connor Clifton means. Clifton is a depth defenseman that has shown growth and promise in his game. Pricing himself out of Boston has allowed this team to capitalize. Given his age and growth, he is an excellent piece of the puzzle. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Main Photo: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Connor Clifton has a new contract. After spending his young career with the Boston Bruins, he has chosen to sign with the Buffalo Sabres. Clifton is locked in for the next three years and has a total value of $10 million per life of the contract. WELCOME TO BUFFALO\u203c\ufe0f We have signed defenseman Connor Clifton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4194,"featured_media":138641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,4547,4548],"tags":[5833,3987,662],"class_list":["post-138640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-buffalo-sabres-news","tag-connor-clifton","tag-nhl-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}