The progression of Dennis Wideman from mistake-prone, risk-taking “offenseman” into a legit No. 2 defenseman on a contending club continued this season, Wideman’s first as a multi-millionaire who was expected to serve as a two-way force for the Boston Bruins.

Healthy for most of the year, Wideman was able to find a level of consistency that made him not only a threat to score and make big defensive plays, but also earned him enough average ice time to finish second to Zdeno Chara on the Bruins’ roster in both the regular season and playoffs.

Stats: 79 GP, 13-37-50, 34 PIM, plus-32 regular season; 11 GP, 0-6-6, 2 PIM, even rating playoffs.

Contract status: Signed through 2011-12 at a $3.9735 million cap hit.

Season highlight: The Bruins easily could’ve panicked when faced with a jacked-up Montreal squad and a rocking Bell Centre crowd in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. But led by Wideman, Boston kept things simple and weathered the storm. Wideman finished the night with two assists and a plus-2 rating, but it was the little plays he made on breakouts and in front of the Boston net that helped the Bruins build an insurmountable 3-0 series lead.

Season low light: The matinee March 15 in Pittsburgh is probably one Wideman would like removed from the record books. In the 6-4 Boston loss, Wideman was a minus-3. His second first-period penalty led to a Chris Kunitz power-play goal. And in the third period Kunitz blocked Wideman’s shot to start an end-to-end rush that finished with another Pittsburgh goal. For the afternoon, Wideman managed just one shot on net while five were either blocked or missed the target.

In summation … Wideman proved a perfect fit for the Boston scheme as a No. 2 defenseman and power-play performer.

Grade: A-minus. The Bruins could’ve used more offense from their most-gifted blueliner against Carolina, but otherwise Wideman fit the bill all year long.

The crystal ball says … Wideman should continue to develop and get more accurate with his shot, which could make his 50-point season a prelude to even bigger seasons points-wise.