Jack Studnicka in recent weeks has looked more than ready to step up to the Boston Bruins roster.
While it’s always great to have prospects in the American Hockey League that are ready to graduate, you’ve got to wonder when the Boston Bruins will give Jack Studnicka a proper look.
He was one of two Providence Bruins (along with Paul Carey) to attend the AHL All-Star Classic and leads the team in scoring with 17 goals and 18 assists. All in his rookie season as a full-time member of the AHL roster.
His most recent showing against the Syracuse Crunch highlighted just how ready Jack Studnicka now is. He finished the game on Saturday night with 2 goals and 2 assists and has shown a keen improvement this season.
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It would appear the Boston Bruins are going with the approach of keeping Studnicka in Providence playing top-six minutes as opposed to promoting him to their line-up where he’d be getting third-line minutes at best.
Frustrating as it is to watch a player starting to show dominance in the AHL but not be rewarded with a call-up, this is clever planning on the Boston Bruins’ part.
Assuming Jack Studnicka isn’t called up next year either, he would likely join the Boston Bruins at the perfect time, the following season, to take David Krejci‘s minutes. At the very least, even if Krejci is renewed on a much less expensive deal, you have to be writing Studnicka onto the Bruins team-sheet by that point regardless.
That he isn’t there already, I think, is actually a smart ploy by the Boston to get maximum value from his entry-level deal. The fact he hasn’t been promoted this season means he’ll only have two years prior to an RFA deal and will have to work even harder to elevate his value.
Perhaps the element of his game that the Boston Bruins will want to see most continued improvement in is his consistency. He has proven himself at junior level and now in his first true professional stint, but it’s another big step up to the NHL.
Beyond that, he proved in the AHL All-Star Challenge that he has the raw tool-set for success in the big league, it’s just reliant upon the Boston Bruins finding him a spot in the line-up.
Jack Studnicka has been one for the future ever since he was drafted in the second round (53rd overall) of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Now, he appears to be on the cusp of cracking the NHL.
His debut, grabbing an assist on Danton Heinen‘s goal against the Montreal Canadiens certainly ingratiated him with Boston fans. The next step is to get back up there and net his first goal for the team!