I hope everyone had a safe and Merry Christmas. There isn’t much in the way of Bruins prospect updates but there is some news. But remember, today is Boxing Day in Canada and that means the World Junior Championships Under-20 begin and you can keep tabs on Fabian Lysell (Sweden) and Dans Locmelis (Latvia).
The Ontario Hockey League trade deadline is just 3 weeks away and rumors of the Oshawa Generals trading away leading scorer Brett Harrison have been picking up. I’ve spoken about his trade probabilities before on here. It’s just the way junior hockey works. The Generals aren’t going anywhere and they can recoup some assets for Harrison from a team looking to make a serious playoff run.
Oshawa has already traded away their top blueliner and captain Lleyton Moore for a roster player and 3 draft picks and Harrison would surely bring more back in a trade. There are several teams in the running including the London Knights and Sarnia Sting where Bruins prospects Jackson Edward and Ryan Mast play respectively. The Windsor Spitfires are also a possibility where Marc Savard is head coach.
Harrison, a natural center, has been playing mostly left wing for several weeks now and that opens up different possibilities for different teams. I expect a deal to the highest bidder will get done before the January 10 trade deadline. Harrison is currently on an 8-game point streak on 7 goals and 8 assists going into the break.
When it comes to prospects, one of the things I asked Santa Claus for was for Locomotiv of the KHL to give Roman Bychkov some ice time to see if there is anything there in his game that was talked about pre-draft. Well, Santa partially delivered as he dressed in two of the 3 games for Locomotiv and he had a helper in each game – his first points of the season.
Bychkov had gone from averaging 10 minutes time on ice per game to 17 minutes over the last week and it looks to have paid off somewhat. It’s been a slow process for the 21-year-old, 5’11” – 185-pound blueliner but it may also be too late. His contract with Locomotiv expires on April 30, 2023 – a contract that came very late in the offseason. I don’t want to blame mismanagement of his development but at this point it is clear Bychkov is heading in the same direction as every other Russian defenceman they’ve ever drafted.
Here’s a look at the Providence Bruins leaders:
Coming up this week:
| PLAYER | MON 26 | TUE 27 | WED 28 | THU 29 | FRI 30 | SAT 31 | SUN 1 |
| CEHLARIK | |||||||
| BYCHKOV | At SPA | Vs KUN | Vs CSK | ||||
| MANTYKIVI | Vs TPS | At PEL | Vs JUK | ||||
| LOCMELIS | *VS US | *Vs SWI | *VS FIN | *V SVK | |||
| MYRENBERG | At SOD | Vs IF | At OST | ||||
| JELLVIK/GASSEAU/KUNTAR | At ASU | At ASU | |||||
| LOHREI | |||||||
| LANGENBRUNNER | At BU | ||||||
| SPICER/OLSON | At STT | ||||||
| SCHMALTZ | Vs U18 | ||||||
| DURAN/SVEDEBACK | Vs YAL | ||||||
| GALLAGHER | Vs HAR | ||||||
| MCFAUL | Vs UMA | Vs LSU | |||||
| POITRAS | At WSR | Vs WSR | At BAR | ||||
| HARRISON | Vs KGN | At N B | Vs PBO | ||||
| MAST | Vs LDN | At LDN | |||||
| EDWARD | Vs ER | At SAR | Vs SAR | ||||
| BRUNET | at SHA | At VIC | Vs DRU | ||||
| DYCK | At MH | Vs LET | Vs MH |
* World Junior Championship games.
You may remember the following chart from last season or the start of this season. For new followers, this chart is where I think the future lies for each player in terms of NHL possibilities. Yes, it is an opinion but it is based on things such as current level of play, how they’ve projected, contract status, who is ahead of them on the depth chart and their trade value around the league.
Since we are at the unofficial half way point of the season, I wish to update one more chart for you. I posted this at the start of the season and it is a rating on individual skill sets for each prospect based on last season. Well, there has been some adjusting so here’s an update for you.
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Dom - Hockey 