Jakub Zboril
Should he return to the AHL and not win a promotion this year, Jakub Zboril will mark his third season honing his craft with the Providence Bruins.
In year’s gone by, you’d say that he no longer had a shot, however these days when over-ripening prospects is almost the norm, you can safely bet that he will likely still one day make the Boston Bruins line-up regularly.
He did earn a two-game NHL call-up, making his big-league debut in doing so, last season but wasn’t able to make it stick; instead, Connor Clifton bypassed him and all of the other names on this list in winning a roster spot.
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As a first round (13th overall) pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, it’s clear that the Boston Bruins saw (and hopefully still see) Zboril as a real potential talent.
By delaying him from graduating to the NHL, they’re actually making him more well-rounded with his minutes in Providence typically erring more towards shut-down work as opposed to offensive zone starts.
You can make great claim that he could easily do the job on the Boston Bruins third pairing already, but giving him bigger minutes in the American Hockey League is going to make him fundamentally better in the long run.
As for deserving the spot more than Alex Petrovic, it’s a fair comment to make not only given his first round status but also as he has been developing his skills and improving in all of the areas the Boston Bruins have asked him to target.
You could write him off as a bust, but that’s unfair. He’s only four years post-draft year and the Boston Bruins have a ridiculously strong blue-line, provided of course that their two restricted free agents ink their new deals soon.