Boston Bruins Monday Morning Prospect Update Week Ending: September 4 2022

One of the more popular topics here a season ago was the Boston Bruins weekly prospect updates. And the hope is that I can bring the same for the 2022-2023 season and in more detail than last season.

Of course, the 2022 NHL Entry Draft has brought some new kids to the block. Matthew Poitras will be returning to the Guelph Storm and Jackson Edward will head back to the London Knights, both of the OHL, Dans Locmelis will be returning to Lulea HF of the J20 Nationell in Sweden, Frederic Brunet will again skate for Rimouski Oceanic in the QMJHL and Reid Dyck will man the crease for the Swift Current Broncos in the WHL. Cole Spicer will start his NCAA career with Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.

Switching organizations or leagues this season are: Roman Bychkov from Amur Khabarovsk (KHL) to Locomotiv Yaroslavl (KHL), Oskar Jellvik from Djurgardens IF (J20 Nationell) to Boston College Eagles (NCAA), Andre Gasseau will also be joining Boston College from the Fargo Force (USHL), Philip Svedeback will join the Providence Friars (NCAA) from Dubuque Fighting Saints (USHL) and Mason Langenbrunner will be joining Harvard Crimson (NCAA) from the Fargo Force. Peter Cehlarik, who the Bruins hold the rights to until next summer, has left Avangard Omsk (KHL) to play for EV Zug (Swiss National League).

Moving on is everyone’s favorite prospect Fabian Lysell since the focus here is to stick to prospects outside the AHL and ECHL. I don’t see any situation where the Bruins would loan him back to the Vancouver Giants (WHL). Of note, Matias Mantykivi is entering his final year of his contract with Ilves Tampere of the Finnish Liiga. He will be attending the Bruins rookie camp and take part in the Prospect Challenge.

This offseason, the Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast had the opportunity to sit down with Mantykivi, Poitras and Dyck. If you missed those podcasts, have a look at the YouTube editions of those here:

Last season, I provided links to the Providence Bruins stat page. Some of you have asked if I could just embed them here, so I’ve decided to do the top 10 scores in Providence.

The following chart (one I used last season) projects where I believe players will be moving forward. It’s based on how things stand today. I believe your eyes will be drawn to the “Will play for the Bruins” column almost immediately. It’s based on several different criteria but there are two important things I look for right away: 1) Who is ahead of them on the depth chart; 2) What is their contract status?

Things will change here as the season progresses. Mason Lohrei was a 5 for me last season and is again this season because I don’t believe the Bruins have any intention of trading him and, even though he hasn’t signed an NHL contract, I don’t believe he will finish out his college career and will turn pro sooner rather than later. On the flip side, Brett Harrison jumped from a 4 a year ago to 5 this year because he signed his ELC. Ryan Mast went from a 2.5 a year ago to a 4.5 now because of the season he had and signing his ELC. Don’t worry about the goaltenders though. They take a lot longer to move on this list.

*The 50% chance of making the NHL has a benchmark of more than 100 games in their career.

The Week That Was

The Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL played their third and fourth exhibition games with Brunet appearing in the last two contests. Brunet showed in his two outings that he will be even more of an offensive driver from the blueline and a powerplay quarterback than he was a season ago. He helped set up two powerplay goals in his second game after going pointless in his first game of the exhibition season. Rimouski is 3-1 so far and all indications point to a good season coming up for them with Brunet playing a major role. They will play a back-to-back this coming weekend and hopefully Brunet will get into one of those two before heading to Buffalo for the Prospect Challenge.

Poitras and his Guelph Storm had back-to-back exhibition games against the Mississauga Steelheads. First up on Friday was a 2-1 victory in Mississauga. Poitras was kept off the scoresheet on Friday but one thing that was obvious was the work he did in the faceoff circle going 11 for 17, far better then the 47% he had a season ago. The rematch in Guelph saw the Storm handle Mississauga rather easily, skating away with a 7-3 victory. Poitras netted two goals and two helpers and was named the game’s second star. However, he reverted back in the faceoff circle going 4-10. The work needs to continue in that area of his game.

Harrison played his first exhibition game on Saturday and his Oshawa Generals suffered a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Barrie Colts. After being one of the Generals best faceoff men a season ago, Harrison went an uncharacteristic 7 for 23 on the dot. On Sunday, Oshawa’s arch rivals the Peterborough Petes embarrassed them 7-1. Harrison did not play in that matchup.

Mast and his Sarnia Sting, along with Edward and his London Knights, do not play their first exhibition game until September 9, coincidently against each other. They’ll play on back-to-back nights against each other and like Brunet, hopefully they will get into one game before heading to Boston and then Buffalo.

Dyck and his Swift Current Broncos of the WHL will begin their exhibition schedule this week with back-to-back games against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Over in Champions League play, Mantykivi and his Ilves Tampere squad suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Fribourg on Thursday. Ilves required overtime to beat Salzburg by the same score on Friday. Mantykivi was kept off the scoresheet in both contests despite centering the top line. But he’s always been a notoriously slow starter.

In other Champions League action, Cehlarik and EV Zug suffered a 5-2 defeat to Wolfburg on Friday. On Sunday, they had a matchup against TPS Turku and pulled out a 4-0 victory wit Cehlarik notching an assist on the games opening goal.

Over in KHL exhibition action, Locomotiv lost their first match on Friday by a score of 4-2 against Avtomobilist. While Locomotiv dressed seven defencemen, Bychkov did not dress. On Sunday, Locomotiv won their first pre-season game by a score of 4-0 over Traktor. Once again, Locomotiv dressed 7 defencemen and Bychkov did not dress.

Jellvik is coming off of what I would call a disappointing international event against Finland, Czechia and Slovakia in an Under-20 event where he represented his native Sweden in late August. While the Swedes were a perfect 3-0, Jellvik was only able to muster a goal and an assist and that came at the hands of an 11-1 drubbing of Slovakia. Against Czechia and Finland, both one-goal games, Jellvik was unable to add to his offence.

Coming up this week:

Some of you have also asked if I could provide links on where to watch games on my weekly schedule. I will do that whenever possible, but I will not provide links to illegal streams. Some streaming options require a subscription.

Click on scheduled game for television/streaming options (subscription may be required).

PLAYER	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
CEHLARIK	*CHL			*CHL		*CHL
BYCHKOV			At NEF		Vs VIT		At CSKA
MANTYKIVI					*CHL		*CHL
LOCMELIS						Vs AIK
JELLVIK
GASSEAU
KUNTAR
LOHREI
LANGENBRUNNER
SPICER
OLSON
SCHMALTZ
DURAN
GALLAGHER
MCFAUL
POITRAS	**Vs KIT				**Vs OSH		**At OSH
HARRISON					**At GUE		**Vs GUE
MAST					**At LDN	**Vs LDN
EDWARD					**Vs SAR	**At SAR
BRUNET					**Vs B B	** At B B
SVEDEBACK
DYCK					**At MJ	**Vs MJ

*CHL – Champions League games (May also be on TSN and TSN Go App but may be on delay)

**Canadian Hockey League Exhibition Games. Games are not scheduled to be streamed on CHL TV at this time but could be added on game day.

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