Regardless of how the rest of his hockey career goes, Zach Senyshyn and the Bruins 2015 NHL Entry Draft will always be compared to the guys they missed on, more specifically Matthew Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot.
Since the Bruins drafted Senyshyn with the 15th pick, the now 22-year old hasn’t quite taken that next step that the team had hoped he would.
Senyshyn hasn’t exactly lit it up in the AHL, getting by with 28 goals in 128 career games. But with the Bruins electing to rest some key players ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Senyshyn made his NHL debut in Minnesota on Thursday.
It was a solid first impression.
The rookie skated on a line with Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson, and didn’t look out of place or overwhelmed at all. The line as a whole wasn’t particularly great, (50% corsi for) but it was an encouraging first crack at things for Senyshyn.
What caught my attention the most, was Senyshyn's shot selection. All seven shot attempts came from the right areas, as Senyshyn showed he's not afraid to shoot the puck.
With the Bruins holding a 2-0 lead, and the Wild goalie pulled, Senyshyn sealed the deal for the Bruins with an empty net goal, the first of his NHL career.
An empty net goal is not exactly how anyone envisions scoring their first NHL goal, so if you ask him in the future how the goal went, Senyshyn will tell you it went something like this.
"Oh, top shelf, dangled a couple guys, he said with a smile. “You put the puck in the net in the National Hockey League, you're not going to forget it, feels incredible. I know it's not the way you envision it, but I’ll take it any way I can get it."
Senyshyn logged 12:41 of ice time, and registered four shots on goal, in a game where he was not timid to do the little things that it takes to be successful in the National Hockey League.
“When he won pucks he was willing to go to the net, make good plays with it, got his shut off in a hurry. I know he got an empty-net goal, but he had three or four good chances before that. As your first, you'd always like to tell the whole world you went through the whole team and went bar down, but this still works for him,… head coach Bruce Cassidy said.
“First game, first NHL goal. We're happy for him, good kid, I'm happy for him, played hard, played well. He'll go back in Saturday and hopefully build on it."
Unless the craziest of craziness occurs in the playoffs, Saturday will be the last we see of Senyshyn this season, but it will be important for him to show management he has what it takes to make it in the NHL.
Senyshyn will be one of many fighting for a job when training camp rolls around in the fall, but what he does in these two games will be important for his confidence moving forward.
As we can tell from the players who have been recalled before him, Senyshyn has several bodies ahead of him in the organizational depth chart. But not all those ahead of him have the label of a first round draft pick.
At some point, Senyshyn will be given an extended amount of time to show his value and move his way up that depth chart, as he looks to avoid the label of a first round bust.
Thursday was a step in the right direction.
Senyshyn and the Bruins will wrap up the 2018-19 regular season Saturday at home when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning.