Boston Bruins select Roman Bychkov 154th overall in 2019 NHL Entry Draft

The Boston Bruins third selection in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft didn’t occur until midway through Day 2 when they stepped up to the podium to make their fifth round selection, picking Russian defensman, Roman Bychkov from Loko Yaroslavl.

Roman Bychkov looks like he could prove one of the steals of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft late rounds. The Boston Bruins hedged their bets on a player that was rated to go around 80-110 on several of the popular draft ranking sites.

In a draft that this year felt a little lacklustre as a Boston Bruins fan, Roman Bychkov might end up being the saviour of their draft class. The keyword there though, unfortunately, is ‘might’. He hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in the MHL yet, let alone the KHL or anywhere other league.

Ideally, you’d want him to find a major junior side willing to take him in and head over to Canada this year to get acquainted with North American ice. This, too, would also help him with any language barrier that exists – a lot of Canadian junior sides often have Russian-born players on their rosters, after all.

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Obviously, such a scenario is ideal-world thinking and chances are he remains in the MHL and tries to earn a promotion to the KHL for now. His 15 points in 40 games with Loko Yaroslavl last season doesn’t scream out big-time offensive producer, but looking at the statistics of all defenseman playing in the league last year, it’s not one that seems to be big on blue-line production.

Perhaps the only time anyone in North America may have heard mention or seen Roman Bychkov was at the NHL Scouting Combine or his 5 games with the Russian Under-18 side at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. The Russian side finished in third at the Edmonton and Red Deer hosted youth tournament.

It’s a rare thing to see a Russian player selected by the Boston Bruins, so they must’ve seen something they really liked. At 34th on the European skater list, Bychkov is a player that is intriguing but I also think would need considerable seasoning with the Providence Bruins before being anywhere near ready for the big-time.

Given we’re not that far removed from the second round drafting of Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, who now appears to be entering ‘bust’ territory, it’s a fair comment to say that as long as Roman does eventually head over from Europe and remain in North America for more than just a year or two, he’s been a reasonable choice in the fifth round.

Those later picks are always risky, you never quite know how a player will pan out. Although I doubt we’re about to see the second coming of Zdeno Chara, should we even see just a bottom pairing guy – it’s a win!