Boston Bruins Monday Morning Prospect Update Week Ending: February 26, 2022

The Boston Bruins were involved in a huge deal last week with the Washington Capitals and the Minnesota Wild that included Craig Smith, Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway and draft picks. But there was one more component, one that no one is talking about: The Bruins also acquired the rights to Andrei Svetlakov from the Wild.

The reasons no one is talking about Svetlakov are twofold: First, he plays in the KHL where most don’t pay much if any attention. Second, he has shown little to no interest in ever playing in the NHL.

The 6’0”, 200-pound Svetlakov is a native of Moscow, Russia. He was originally drafted by the Wild at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, 178^th overall. He was also the 80^th overall pick at the 2013 KHL Draft by CSKA Moscow where he has played his career to date. Svetlakov is signed through the 2023-2024 season.

Svetlakov was the 24^th ranked European skater by NHL Central Scouting heading into the 2017 Entry Draft. The majority of public ranking services had him pegged as an early fifth rounder on their draft boards.

Svetlakov is a multi position forward able to play left wing or at center. Through 67 KHL games with CSKA Moscow this season he has won 56.6% of the 1056 draws he’s taken. He easily leads his team with 122 hits while as a forward also leads his team with 48 blocked shots and takeaways with 39. He averages the most shorthanded TOI on his team among forwards with least powerplay time. He has 11 goals and 16 assists through 67 games on the season while averaging the third lowest TOI among team forwards at 16:33.

All the stats point to Svetlakov being a third line player at the KHL level. Unfortunately, that barely translates into fourth liner at the NHL Level. I can’t say that I’ve watched a lot of Svetlakov’s games, but the notes I made on him say “love the tenacity and willingness to do whatever it takes, but he’s not an NHL player.” But I’ve been wrong before.

Because there is no standing transfer agreement between the NHL and KHL, there is no expiry date on how long the Bruins hold Svetlakov’s rights.

In a separate transaction, the Bruins acquired Shane Bowers from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Keith Kinkaid. Kinkaid was being outplayed in Providence by Brandon Bussi and Kyle Keyser and was hoping an opportunity would arise where he could go elsewhere.

In Bowers, the Bruins acquire a former first round pick – 28^th overall at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators. He was part of the deal that sent Matt Duchene to the Senators in 2017. He has represented Canada on three occasions internationally: He captained Team Canada Black at the WHC-U17 in 2015, was on the Hlinka squad in 2016 and the WJC-U20 in 2019.

Bowers spent two seasons with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL. He was named to the USHL All-Rookie Second team and followed that up with the USHL Third All Star Team the following season. He went on to play College Hockey with Boston University and was named to the Hockey East All Rookie Team. He was an Honorable Mention for Hockey East All Star Team and won a Championship with BU.

After a second season with BU, Bowers went on to play in the AHL. He has appeared in 154 career games scoring 27 goals and 32 assists. Although it’s a small sample size, he ups his game in the playoffs. He eventually earned a call up to the Avalanche but his debut was cut short when he broke his arm.

Bowers is a reclamation project of sorts. Maybe he can develop into a fourth line grinder role. This is more about clearing the log jam in the crease in Providence and getting an asset back you hope can develop into something. I’ve seen many players go through this and find some level of success. But I’ve seen many more not. Time will tell.

Here’s a look at the Providence Bruins leaders:

Coming up this week:

PLAYER	MON 27	TUE 28	WED 1	THU 2	FRI 3	SAT 4	SUN 5
MANTYKIVI			Vs V S		At LUK	At S P
LOCMELIS						Vs OHK	Vs DUR
MYRENBERG			Vs ALM		Vs KRI
JELLVIK/GASSEAU/KUNTAR					Vs CT	At CT
LOHREI					Vs P S	Vs P S
LANGENBRUNNER
SPICER/OLSON					At St C	At St C
SCHMALTZ					Vs OM	Vs OM
DURAN/SVEDEBACK					At B U	Vs B U
GALLAGHER					Vs PRO	At PRO
MCFAUL						Vs BRN
POITRAS			At MIS		At SOO	At FLT
HARRISON				Vs LDN		Vs SAR
MAST			At SOO		Vs LDN	At WSR
EDWARD				At WSR	At SAR
BRUNET					Vs Vd’O	At R N
DYCK					At EDM	At CGY

AROUND THE GLOBE

WHO’S HOT:

Dans Locmelis has a 5-game point streak on the go with 8 goals and 2 assists in those 5 games. He leads the J20 Nationell Top-10 in scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists in 11 games. His 1.82 points-per-game is also tops. He is a plus-11 which is truly amazing at this level.

Matthew Poitras has a 10-game point streak going on 2 goals and 15 assists. It’s also a 10-game assist streak for Poitras, one shy of the longest assist streak in the OHL this season. Guelph has come a long way since the poor start to the season in large part thanks to Poitras. It’s possible the 4 OHL Bruins prospects finish 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th in the Western Conference now, avoiding each other in the first round of the playoffs.

Trevor Kuntar had a 7-game point streak in which he had 5 goals and 4 assists come to an end Saturday. The Junior sits third in scoring for Boston College on 13 goals and 13 assists.

WHO’S WARM:

Ryan Mast has 2 goals and 3 assists in his last 5 games and 3 goals 4 assists in his last 10. More importantly, he is a plus-8 in his last 5 games and plus-12 in his last 10. In his last dozen games or so, he’s been activating like I have never seen before while still being a force defensively.

Andre Gasseau 3 goals and 7 assists in his last 10 games. The Freshman sits fourth in scoring for Boston College with 7 goals and 17 assists in 32 games on the season. Gasseau has surpassed the offensive expectations I had of him on the season.

Frederic Brunet has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 games. He missed Sunday’s game and has dropped to third in QMJHL scoring among defencemen.

WHO’S COLD:

Mason Langenbrunner is pointless in 12 games.

Dustyn McFaul is pointless in 6 games.

Brett Harrison has 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 5 games.

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