Just under 24 hours into the NHL’s free-agency period, and as usual, the Boston Bruins remained quiet and inactive—inking just two players to contracts.

The B’s signed penalty-killing specialist Daniel Paille to a two-year, $2,15M contract, for a cap-hit of $1.075M annually. A pretty solid deal for the speedy bottom-6 forward who led the team in penalty-kill time-on-ice average (1:59).

“I thought when we acquired Dan, he really helped show up our penalty killing, he brought us speed to the lineup, to the forward group.” said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli during last night’s conference call. “He also was able to play up and down the lineup, so he was helpful when we ran into injuries. So we signed him for two years and he’s in our forward group now

“With his speed, his size, his ability to forecheck I think once he gets his confidence back you’ll see him in a variety of spots. Certainly at the very least he’ll be in that slot [forth line], but I expect more things too of Dan.”

The Bruins also signed Providence forward Jeremy Reich for a one-year deal, who should spend the entire season back in the AHL, so this signing is essentially moot when it come to the actual Boston Bruins.

Nearly the entire 2009-10 Boston Bruins roster will be back for this upcoming season, with only a handful of players from last year’s squad that remain unsigned—UFA’s Steve Begin and Miroslav Satan and RFA’s Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler, as well as recently acquired RFA Greg Campbell. But there’s still a good chance we’ll see them dressed in Black-and-Gold once again.

“I have to leave some spots for competition for the younger guys so right now, if there’s not something in the trade market, I would say yes I’m probably done shopping. I spoke with  [Steve Begin], Beige’s agent, and I spoke with [Miroslav Satan] Miro’s agent.” said Chiarelli. “we might come back at some point depending on what happens, but right now we’re in a holding pattern as far as adding forwards.

“We’ve got some restricted free agents we have to sign. Obviously we’ve got Mark Stuart, Blake Wheeler, Greg Campbell as far as roster players. So I’m going to look at those, and see where we are on those deals.” said Chiarelli. “I don’t really have any pressing needs from just purely acquiring someone on the free-agent market. So I don’t think you’ll see much from us in the next couple of days.”

Defenseman Derek Morris—whom the Bruins traded for a conditional fourth-round draft pick back in Macrh—signed a four-year deal with the Phoenix Coyotes, now making that draft pick a third-rounder for the Bruins in 2011. And according to capgeek.com, the Bruins have just $4.465M available cap-space remaining.

Another 24-hour free-agency period down and another stagnant day for Boston. Last year at this time, the Bruins went out and signed Begin from the free-agent market, and had Johnny Boychuk and Byron Bitz re-upped with extensions. Year-after-year we see the big fish in the free-agency pool get hooked by other organizations, as the Bruins’ faithful remain, once again, stand on the outside looking in.