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When you’re as tight against the salary cap as the Boston Bruins are, you take chances.
Whether that’s by taking a flier on a veteran winger that you think can benefit from your club’s style of play or by giving the keys of an NHL locker to a rookie is up to you, of course, but it does happen. And the latter of the two inched closer to reality for the 2014-15 Bruins, who inked 2014 first-round pick David Pastrnak to a three-year entry-level contract earlier this afternoon.
This means that the 18-year-old Pastrnak, the star of the Bruins’ 2014 Development Camp last week, will come back to Boston in September for the Black-and-Gold’s training camp, get some games in throughout the preseason, and maybe even see himself skate in a nine-game trial with the club.
“He had a terrific development camp, and I know everyone’s talking about him,… Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said of the Czech winger. “He’s a good young player, he’s just 18 years old and he’s a player – it’s well-documented that we’re looking for skill and speed and he fits that bill, but let’s not put the cart before the horse with David. I think we’re fortunate to get him where we got him and he had a terrific camp, and we’ll see where it goes from there.…
Drafted with the 25th overall pick at this year’s draft in Philadelphia, Pastrnak, who played his 2013-14 hockey as the leading scorer with Sodertalje SK in the Allsvenskan League (Sweden’s second-tier league), has what the B’s need right now: Speed, skill, and he’s a right-handed shot.
“He plays at a very high rate of speed, great one on one ability and body control, really high-end skilled player,… Providence head coach Bruce Cassidy, with the club’s prospects at development camp all week, said of Pastrnak. “It’s hard to evaluate his overall game obviously when you just watch a lot of one on one drills but you can see why he’s a high pick, high-end skill.…
Let’s not kid ourselves here, Sweden B to the National Hockey League is a huge step, and everybody involved knows that. Pastrnak won’t just come in and replace Jarome Iginla on the B’s top line, and at 170 pounds, there’s a lot of questions about just how ready Pastrnak will be in 2014-15.
“It’s another step along the way, and it’s important that we don’t skip those steps,… Chiarelli said of Pastrnak’s potentially fast track to the NHL. “And at each step, the level of play, the tempo of play, the strength of the players – at least, those players are varying in strength – all increases, so with a young 18-year-old who’s 171 pounds, you have to be careful. Now, he’s naturally strong, so he’s got that going for him, but we’ll have to see.…
An extremely small group of B’s forwards have made the team almost immediately after they were drafted -- Patrice Bergeron (2003), Phil Kessel (2006), and Tyler Seguin (2010) are the most notables in recent years -- but it’s Pastrnak’s skill that could make it an interesting call for Chiarelli and company this fall. It’s big league skill -- albeit in a teenage frame.
“Clearly, there’s a reason he’s a first round draft pick,… Cassidy noted, adding, “He’s got all kinds of skills, he’s got a – he reminds me a little bit of when Tyler [Seguin] was here at his first development camps again and Alexander Semin I had years ago, those quick guys that can really shoot it off without a lot of time or wasting a lot of time and make those little tight area plays.…
If you’re asking me, this is an idea that’s honestly worth the risk. Now, you obviously saw developmental issues with a Kessel and Seguin in their first few years in the NHL, and especially in Claude Julien’s system, but here you have a player in Pastrnak who admittedly loves David Krejci (he listed the B’s top-liner as his favorite NHL player), has speed and skill (something you desperately need, I think), and could send back to Sweden after nine games.
And perhaps most of all, he doesn’t have to come here and light the world on fire. The Bruins will have strong secondary scoring options -- Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith (though still unsigned) -- that’ll lessen the need for monstrous contributions from Pastrnak. But hey,, you can’t tell me it wouldn’t be interesting to see Pastrnak with Krejci, even if it’s for just nine games.
“I just hope I'm going to stay alive after [from excitment], if it's going to happen,… Pastrnak said of the opportunity to skate with No. 46 in Black-and-Gold. “I always said if I get this chance, I would do my best and show to the Bruins that they made the right decision and I would really enjoy it.…
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