Bruins Walk Away from Matias Mantykivi

The Collective Bargaining Agreement states that an NHL team holds the rights of players drafted from Europe until the fourth June following the NHL Entry Draft they were selected in (as long as that nation has a transfer agreement in place with the NHL). It also states that they hold the rights to players drafted from the Canadian Hockey League until the second June following the NHL Entry Draft, they were selected in.

That is why you are seeing a 5:00 PM deadline on June 1, 2023 to sign certain players. For this year, that means Europeans drafted in 2019 and CHL players drafted in 2021. For the CHL players, most of them re-enter the draft while Europeans become unrestricted free agents.

For the Bruins, this applies to Matias Mantykivi, the 6^th round pick in 2019, who was drafted from Finland who just so happen to have a transfer agreement with the NHL. On Thursday, the Bruins decided to walk away from their prospect by not offering him a contract. Mantykivi becomes the first European the Bruins chose to walk away from since 2011 when 6^th round pick Lars Volden, also from Finland, was not offered a contract. The last player they did not exercise their rights to – there were actually two – were CHL drafted players from the 2017 Entry Draft: Cedric Pare, a 6^th round pick from the QMJHL and Daniel Bukac, their 7^th round pick.

It appears however, that the writing was on the wall back in July of 2022 when Jamie Langenbrunner had this to say about Mantykivi: “He plays second line in Liiga, gets plenty of opportunity. I don’t know if we’ll be able to provide him much more than that at Providence right now. It’s a hard league to play in, it’s a grinding league, and he’s a good player in that league. We’ll monitor him well this year. We’ll make a decision on him at some point this year if he’s someone we sign or not.” (Credit to Ty Anderson)

In March of 2022, Mantykivi signed a one-year extension with Ilves Tampere with a clause that he could opt out of the contract should an NHL contract be signed. Ilves Sports Director Timo Koskela had this to say about the extension: “Mantykivi has been excellent with Ilves and has already become one of the best players in Liiga. His game will continue to evolve over the next couple of years just because of physical progress. He’s an NHL-level talent and there’s something in his game that’s impossible to teach. We wanted to make sure that if Matias is still playing in Finland during the 2023-2024 season, that it will be with Ilves, but getting an NHL contract is also completely realistic.”

With the number of picks the Bruins have traded away over the next couple of years and a dwindling prospect pool, some question whether it was the right move to walk away at this point. Bruins European Scout Teemu Numminen is based out of Tampere Finland where it just so happens Mantykivi played. I’m sure Numminen has kept tabs on the youngster.

I’ve said it many of times on my weekly prospect reports that I felt that Mantykivi had earned a chance. Many in the hockey world, especially in Europe felt the same way. Earning a chance though does not mean success.

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