Boston Bruins: Russian teen Pavel Shen expected to sign on shortly

Boston Bruins prospect Pavel Shen could well be headed to North America if recent reports are to be believed.

The Russian Prospects Twitter account recently posted that Pavel Shen, 7th round pick (212th overall) of the Boston Bruins in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft may well be headed to our shores sooner than expected:

Now, I get the lack of enthusiasm that might meet such an announcement. After all, we’re talking a guy that dropped to the seventh round and was picked up after 211 players went before him.

How many seventh rounders even get so much as a sniff at the NHL, after all? Before anyone quotes that Joe Pavelski and Henrik Zetterberg historically both went in the seventh round or later still; I know!

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Straight up you can make the case for why he dropped so late; namely the fact he’s Russian and had a contract in the KHL. That represents a drafting risk for the Boston Bruins or indeed any other team that selects such a player. With Russian players earning decent money in their native land, there’s always the risk they choose not to head over to America, hence dropping later in the draft.

Now, what we do know of the Pavel Shen is that he had two KHL campaigns under his belt; neither was altogether that productive and he split the time between the top league, second league and junior league in Russia.

What’s more important, ignoring the productivity element is that he was able to hold his own, still sporting a zero plus/minus rating after 20 KHL games last year. His team, Salavat Yulaev Ufa finished 11th overall in the standings before making the Conference Final in the play-offs. Unfortunately for the Boston Bruins prospect, he didn’t feature at all in the post-season.

Perhaps, this is influencing his decision to try his luck in North America. Given his previous KHL experience, it’s a near certainty that Pavel Shen could immediately fight for a spot with the Providence Bruins.

Along with his KHL experience over the past two years, he also represented his country at the World Junior Championships, where against competition his own age, he put up 3 goals and an assist across 7 games.

For the Boston Bruins, if this deal is to come off, the drafting of Pavel Shen represents a great success of their scouting team. To have a seventh round pick show anything near enough talent to push for an AHL spot as a nineteen year-old, it’s essentially ‘found money’.

Now obviously, we don’t know a great deal about this kid and how he’ll go adjusting to the language, the new environment and the smaller ice, but the fact we’re even talking about his arrival on these shores mean he’s got a chance.

Here’s hoping that the rumor is indeed true and Pavel Shen is headed this way; who knows maybe he puts up enough of a showing at the Boston Bruins training camp that we are uttering his name as an NHL player sooner rather than later?!