BRIGHTON, Mass – In all, the Bruins had an impressive 30 players at this week's development camp at Warrior Ice Arena and the mood was upbeat around the Black and Gold as things wrapped up.
Maybe it was just the fact that the B’s were still in the hunt for free agent John Tavares as of Friday while all six teams awaited their fate on Saturday. Or perhaps it was all about the young, promising players on the ice and some of the performances that Bruins officials watched the past four days of practice drills, battle drills and scrimmaging.
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Certainly, there were some highlights from the prospects that left a lasting impression. Bruins third-round pick Jakub Lauko was considered a steal where Boston selected him in the draft and he didn’t disappoint with blazing skating speed and an ability to finish his breakaway chances around the front of the net. Oskar Steen and Joona Koppanen, both very noticeable at the World Junior tournament last winter, each built on those performances with strong turns at after Koppanen, the big Finnish center, got through the conditioning skate on Day One.
Daniel Bukac, Curtis Hall and Victor Berglund, lower-round picks the past few years, all looked as if they might be good enough to push into the NHL prospect category.
Forward prospect Jack Studnicka looked skilled and polished when it comes to making plays and shooting the puck and probably leaves development camp as the player closest to contributing in the NHL.
Still, that was part of the issue with this development camp if we’re going to nit-pick about it.
There were no truly dominant forces, such as Anders Bjork and Ryan Donato were when they controlled just about everything last summer. Both of those forwards were clearly ready to try out their game in the NHL and showed they were going to be able to help Bruins in the season to come.
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As it turned out, Bjork was solid early before eventually succumbing to shoulder surgery and Donato made an impact after signing with the Bruins following a strong season at Harvard that included a Team USA berth at the Olympics. But both had the right stuff as far as the NHL was concerned, but it doesn’t look like any of these prospects were in that category this time around.
Some of that was about the long-range plan involving most of the prospects in attendance. Some of it was also about Trent Frederic and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson both having “graduated” from development camp as well. They weren’t with the hopefuls this past week at camp, but instead will be right in the mix at training camp in a competition for the open third-line center spot.
“This has always been an important week for us as well as the kids. Camp was a little different that we graduated some kids from the camp and into the next level and we feel good about that. Now it’s about these guys that have just come in,” said Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. “It was a good week, they’ve been busy all week. [Player development director] Jamie [Langenbrunner] has done a really good job putting a special camp together and hopefully, they take a lot away from it. I do believe that Jack [Studnicka] stuck out again during camp. He needs to get stronger and take the next couple of months. His comments have said that he wants to come and compete and that’s exactly what we talk about.
“For us, it’s opportunity, performance, and results. The kids will feel like they have an opportunity, and if they can perform and the results are there than they get to stay, otherwise they have to go work on other things. I caution them that they have things to work on, definitive things to work on and understand and they’re not finished products. You walk around and Zee’s [Zdeno Chara] here every day and before he takes off, he books his own ice. It takes a lot to play against those guys and they have to realize they’re a long way away. But they do have individual attributes at this stage that are very attractive. “
It also conversely means that some of the higher draft picks probably aren’t exactly where they need to be either. Frederic was back at school taking summer classes instead of attending development camp and the sense is that he’s close to NHL-ready given his size, strength and willingness to battle in all areas. That leaves 2017 first-round pick Urho Vaakanainen as the player that probably should have been the star of this scamp, but instead, he again looked like a D-man project that needs some work.
The Finnish D-man seems to have a good stick in the D-zone and can certainly skate with the best of Boston’s prospects, but Vaakanainen has little to no offensive instincts to his game and doesn’t really excel in any particular area. He wasn’t especially rugged in the defensive zone, he looked unsure with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone and he was barely noticeable in the Friday afternoon scrimmage with all the B’s prospects.
In a place where you want your top prospects and draft picks to dominate, Vaakanainen flat out didn’t and it calls into question what kind of NHL player he’s going to be.
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We’ll find out soon enough as Vaakanainen is going to be in NHL training camp this fall vying for a job in Boston or Providence. But like pretty much all of the B’s prospects at this week’s development camp, it looks like it’s going to be a while before we discover what kind of NHL players they could be.