Bruins: Signing of college defenseman is a bit of a curiosity

While there hasn’t been much real Boston Bruins on-ice news, there was a college defenseman signing announced.

Jack Achan, who served as captain for St. Cloud State and has just completed his senior year will be signing an entry-level deal with the Boston Bruins.

You could straight up argue that he’s too small to accomplish too much for the Boston Bruins given he measures in at just 5’8″, but given the way today’s game has gone, maybe that’s far less of a problem – Torey Krug, after all, is just 5’9″.

In his senior year Achan tallied 25 points across 33 games, which also compares nicely to Torey Krug’s final year at Michigan State; Krug grabbed 34 points in 38 games.

More from Free Agency

• Bruins bringing back familiar forward on tryout contract
• The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
• Boston Bruins add veteran middle six depth in James van Riemsdyk
• Bruins reinforce defense with Kevin Shattenkirk signing
• Boston Bruins sign Morgan Geekie to shore up center depth

Perhaps that is where the curiosity lies; Achan may not have managed to capture the same amount of attention as Krug in his college years, but he certainly did enough to catch the Bruins’ eye. That and he managed to win World Juniors gold with USA Hockey a couple of years back; even Krug didn’t do that!

Now, the reason this signing is curious is not necessarily anything to do with Achan being a good or bad prospect. Undrafted players make the big time with a lot more regularity these days; that won’t stand in his way.

What does stand in his way though is a prospect cupboard and indeed a Bruins line-up that already has some formidable names on defense.

Ahead of him in terms of the current line-up are the likes of Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Matt Grzelyck and Torey Krug (provided he’s renewed).

He’s likely going to have to fight hard with the likes of Jeremy Lauzon, John Moore and Connor Clifton to even get close to a spot on the Bruins third pairing next season, hence why we might see him showing up in Providence, rather than Boston.

Even there; there’s some stiff competition with the likes of Jakob Zboril and Urho Vaakaneinen top of the pile.

Comparisons are obvious, because of his height, because of his age and undrafted status. If Achan turns out to be anywhere near the player that Krug currently is then the scouting staff have done an amazing job.

Maybe this is one of those cases where it never hurts to have many different options as one of them will no doubt eventually pan out. Nobody expected Clifton or Lauzon to be the guys pushed into the Bruins line-up a couple of seasons back, maybe this is that same long-game play.

Either way, it’s a slightly curious move. But it’s good Bruins news either way. Competition can only breed stronger all-round players.