Boston Bruins: How much more youth will they inject?

The Boston Bruins aren’t committed to a rip-down rebuild, but they’ve certainly started to graduate a few more players in recent years.

In the month of January alone, we’ve seen the likes of Jeremy Lauzon, Karson Kuhlman, Anders Bjork and Dan Vladar spending time with the Boston Bruins’ NHL roster, whether through necessity or earning it with their AHL performances.

In the past few years, you can add the likes of Connor Clifton, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen to the group of players under-25 that have earned spots in the Boston Bruins line-up and made it stick.

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Obviously in the case of Dan Vladar, the promotion will only last as long as Tuukka Rask is injured and there’s every chance that Jaroslav Halak takes every start in that time period, but it’s useful for him to be facing NHL players in practice, regardless.

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He is the clear example of a much longer-term prospect for the Boston Bruins, but then again, that is something often to be said for goaltenders. His numbers with the Providence Bruins certainly stand out, with a save percentage of 0.934 and a goals against average of just 1.86 in his 13 games this year.

In the final game prior to the All-Star break, the Boston Bruins iced a line-up that featured the likes of Anton Blidh, Vladar (on the bench), Bjork, Kuhlman and Lauzon; all of them seeing enough ice-time to suggest a certain level of faith in them.

Lauzon and Bjork both saw just over 15 minutes each, while Kuhlman and Blidh topped out around the 10-minute mark. Certainly very respectable numbers.

In fact, when it comes to Lauzon, he formed quite a solid third pairing partnership with Matt Grzelyck. They were on the ice for two of the Boston Bruins’ 3 goals, with Lauzon himself grabbing one of those. He also laid a team-leading 4 hits and even blocked a shot; certainly all good signs that he really wants to win a place on the team.

In Anders Bjork’s case, this game marked another in a continued stretch with Boston. He seemingly has cemented a spot in the line-up now, with the demotion of David Backes recently signalling that changes are afoot.

Karson Kuhlman started the year as a Boston Bruins roster member, got injured, demoted and bounced around a bit but has earned his way back into the line-up. He now is being challenged to earn more ice-time.

Last game, he saw most of his even-strength ice-time alongside David Krejci and Danton Heinen, so there’s clearly already a lot of trust being placed in him.

Of all the promotions of late, perhaps Anton Blidh is the surprising one. The young Swede showed he could handle the minutes he was given though; seeing time on the penalty kill and making a nuisance of himself laying a few hits. He didn’t do anything wrong nor did he stand-out; perfect for a fourth line role right now.

Now, these guys are all settling into roles with the Boston Bruins for now but all of them likely know they could be headed back to Providence at any time.

Next. How long should we expect Tuukka Rask to be out?. dark

Likewise, their Providence colleagues will have seen them each promoted one-by-one and know that it could be them next, suiting up in the NHL. Right now, even with the playoff race still quite wide open, the Bruins seem committed to testing out new guys. Hopefully these youngsters have a ‘bring it on’ attitude!

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Frozen Pool.

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