Development camp shows Vaakanainen still in development stage

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The signing of defenseman John Moore to a five-year contract on July 1 signaled a couple of things for the Bruins. 

The first: They now have a surplus of left-shot defensemen at the NHL level and one of them -- with plenty of informed speculation identifying Torey Krug as the most likely candidate -- probably moving on, sooner rather than later, in an old-fashioned hockey trade to improve the team. 

The second: Moore’s presence on a long-term deal also puts a bit of a damper on any expectations of NHL contributions this season from young D-men like Jakub Zboril, Jeremy Lauzon and 2017 first-round pick Urho Vaakanainen.

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Time will tell on Zboril and Lauzon, as both are pretty close to NHL readiness in terms of their pro experience. But during last month's development camp it felt like Vaakanainen is still some time away.

That’s not a shock, given that the Finnish D-man is just coming over from Europe for his first pro season in North America this fall (though, by comparison, Charlie McAvoy had already suited up for the Stanley Cup playoffs a year after being drafted). 

Vaakanainen is a solid, smooth skater and with an active stick in the defensive zone. But it still looks like he has a significant way to go to even be a passable two-way defenseman with some presence in the offensive zone. His decision-making with the puck wasn’t assertive or particularly quick during development camp, and his erratic shot from the point also very clearly needs some work.

Perhaps most surprising of all was the absence of any real tenacity in the defensive zone for a player whose defensive-zone skills are supposed to be his bread and butter. A first-round pick probably should be the most talented player on the ice in a development camp, but Vaakanainen was barely noticeable when the prospects got together for their intra-squad scrimmage at the end of the week. 

Some of that might be due to the subtlety of Vaakanainen’s overall game, but some of it was simply that he wasn’t very good playing among his hockey peers. At the end of the week, general manager Don Sweeney admitted that Vaakanainen has some work to do before arriving for his first full training camp in the fall. He’ll be competing for a job within the Bruins organization for the first time in his hockey career, and it sounds like he'll be given time in the AHL to develop.

“It looked like he’s been off the ice for a little while and looks like he needs to really put in a couple of hard months, training-wise,” said Sweeney. “I think he’s looking forward to the opportunity and looks very comfortable on the ice in terms of his own confidence level. But he needs to understand how much more competitive things will get between now and training camp and he’ll start in rookie camp and everybody goes through that. 

“He’s coming over for the first time. And he certainly has played at a higher level against men for two consecutive years, so he recognizes it. But . . . it ramps up, and that will be the message going back for him for the next couple months.”

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Admittedly, there’s a limit to just how accomplished Vaakanainen is ever going to be in the offensive end of the ice. The book on him is that he’ll be a minutes-cruncher and a player who can keep the puck moving with his skating ability, which presumably would make him an ideal fit on a pairing with Charlie McAvoy somewhere down the line. At this point, however, that’s a long way from happening, with the Bruins already looking toward some fine tuning that will need to place with their young prospect at training camp in September. 

Perhaps it will be a good thing that half the Bruins team is headed to China for part of September, and that will leave a lot of reps for a young player like Vaakanainen to start smoothing out some of the rough patches in his game. 

“The thing with him that I find impressive is his energy levels stay the same from first period all the way through,” said Bruins director of player development Jamie Langenbrunner. “Obviously he’s a smooth skater. I think for us we’re trying to push a little bit his level of urgency on closing plays off. When you are that good of a skater you can take advantage of that. It’s tough to beat a guy like that, but that’s part of growing. 

“We’re going to continue to push that. We’ll have a few more days here and he’ll be over in September for rookie camp in Buffalo and -- with half the group going to China -- all those kids will get into a lot of games here. It will be good. It will be good because until you start doing it in the game and you can show specific examples, it’s tough sometimes for them to believe what you’re telling them.”

Clearly, the clock will really get kicked into high gear once the Bruins organizational coaching staff gets to work with Vaakanainen on a daily basis this fall. But based on the moves made by the Bruins this offseason and on the way he looked in development camp, patience might be a key word for Vaakanainen, who may be a season or two away from making meaningful contributions.

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