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There’s been virtually no buzz around the Boston Bruins this summer. They’ve taken camp invite fliers (or better yet, Flyers) on veteran free agents
Simon Gagne and
Ville Leino. And that’s about it. Both
Reilly Smith and defenseman
Torey Krug remain unsigned, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be signed before camp opens later this week. So, in a Bruins world with little excitement, it seems that everybody’s interest has been piqued by the club’s first round pick from June,
David Pastrnak.
He’s fun to watch. He’s skilled. And he has a legitimate chance at making the B’s roster, it seems.
He could even start his career on the first line with
Milan Lucic and
David Krejci.
An interesting note on Pastrnak from general manager
Peter Chiarelli, courtesy of
WEEI.com:
“Listen, if he’s going to make our team, he’s going to have to play higher up in the lineup,” Chiarelli said. “He’s a skill guy with speed and he needs to play with skill players. Maybe when I say he’s not going to start down the lineup in preseason, in camp, it’s just, he’ll have to be with skill players because you’re not going to get what you want from him [on the fourth line].
“Who knows? He might start with Krejci, I don’t know,” Chiarelli continued. “It’s about giving him some skill players, measuring the expectation level. ... Let’s take one step at a time, and a smaller body can wear down over time, so let’s see how he handles that stuff.”
Playing center on the Bruins rookie team for their tournament in Tennessee, the 18-year-old Pastrnak has been the talk of the camp for the Black and Gold, and an even more intriguing camp is just around the corner. A right shot that can play right wing, the Czech forward would present the club with an intriguing dynamic added to the club’s top line. It’d be a different look for a line that’s typically had a bigger, more power forward lite type player there on the right (
Nathan Horton and
Jarome Iginla).
However, putting a skinnier, skill player on the right side with Krejci isn’t unheard of either.
In 2012,
Tyler Seguin took Horton’s spot on the line when No. 18 went down for the year with a concussion. That year ended with Seguin scoring with a team-leading 29 goals and 67 points. So, it can work.
What could bolster Pastrnak’s chance here (aside from the obvious, which is a strong camp with the big club) is the fact that he’s a right shot while Smith (again, still unsigned) and the projected first line right winger
Loui Eriksson are both lefty shots. It’s a minute detail, the Bruins have said, but Krejci’s success with Iginla last year honestly leads you to believe that they’d prefer to have another righty there to open up the shooting angles just a bit more (especially on the power play, which was straight-up lethal last year).
But it’s an interesting situation for Pastrnak: It’s top six or back to Sweden.
From everything the Bruins have said, and everything we’ve read, it’s clear that they’re not going to force a teen into an adult’s skates like they did with Seguin in 2010-11. Seguin, who was even older than Pastrnak currently is when he broke in with the Bruins, was a non-factor in the hard, defense-first
Claude Julien system until the Eastern Conference Finals, to be honest, and his rookie season undoubtedly would’ve been considered a waste of an entry-level deal had it not been for the Stanley Cup win.
There are obvious adjustments that Pastrnak will have to make to be an effective NHL top sixer -- adjusting to the smaller rink, longer schedule, and more punishing physical brands of hockey, just to name a few -- but it’s his unique skill-set (at least among B’s prospects) that’ll make this one interesting case for Boston.
Pastrnak scored eight goals and 24 points in 36 games for Sodertalje SK last season.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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