Boston Bruins: Top 3 players to keep an eye on in 2021
Here are three players on the Boston Bruins you should keep an eye on during the 2021 season.
The Boston Bruins‘ window to win the Stanley Cup with their current core of players is closing. Defensemen Torey Krug and former captain Zdeno Chara both left in free agency and forwards such as new captain Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand are all getting close to retirement.
However, Bruins’ fans shouldn’t worry too much as the organization has a bunch of talented young players rising through the ranks, with some possibly playing in the NHL as early as this season.
With this wave of youth hitting the Black and Gold soon, I don’t think Boston’s window will be closed for long.
Here are three of these such players that you should keep an eye on in 2021.
3. Boston Bruins’ fans should keep an eye on forward Trent Frederic in 2021.
As the 29th overall pick in 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Trent Frederic made his NHL debut two seasons ago in 2018-19 suiting up for 15 games. Last season, Frederic played in just two NHL games.
Through these 17 NHL games, Frederic didn’t register a point, had a -5 plus/minus (+/-), and -0.4 point shares. So you could say that Frederic has struggled in the NHL so far.
However, this season that could change. Frederic is just 22 years old and still developing. So far in training camp he has been practicing with bottom-six forwards. If he can carve out a role in the bottom-six, this may lead to a much needed confidence boost and momentum.
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But with Frederic being a natural center this will be extremely difficult with the center depth the team has. Right now, Frederic has been practicing and playing on the left wing in scrimmages. So until Bergeron and Krejci retire or leave the team, Frederic’s position in the NHL seems to be left wing.
But just like at center, the B’s are deep at left wing. Frederic will really have to prove he deservers to be in the NHL in 2021 to earn a spot at left wing in the bottom-six, beating out the likes of Anders Bjork, Nick Ritchie, Greg McKegg, Anton Blidh, and Par Lindholm.
2. Boston Bruins’ fans should keep an eye on defenseman Urho Vaakanainen in 2021.
With Krug leaving for the St. Louis Blues and Chara leaving for the Washington Capitals, the Bruins have one spot open on the left side of their defense for 2021. This spot will most likely go to either Jakub Zboril or Urho Vaakanainen.
Going into training camp, it seemed that Zboril had the edge on earning this last spot. He has the better offensive upside and is nearly two years older than Vaakanainen.
However, through one scrimmage, Vaakanainen now seems to be the favorite as he was the best of the Black and Gold’s three young left-shot defensemen (Zboril, Vaakanainen, and Jeremy Lauzon).
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Vaakanainen was doing something he normally doesn’t, jumping in on the rush. This is huge as head coach Bruce Cassidy wants to see the defense more involved in the offense this year.
With Vaakanainen being much more defensively sound than Zboril, an improvement in his offensive game and showing he has just as much upside in the offensive zone would definitely put Vaakanainen above Zboril on the depth chart.
If the case for Vaakanainen’s 2021 season is that he figured out how to produce more offensively while also playing solid defense, he could be an exciting player to watch this season. At just 22 years old, he could become one of the better defensemen on Boston.
1. Boston Bruins’ fans should keep an eye on forward Jack Studnicka in 2021.
There’s no question that Jack Studnicka is ready to play in the NHL. However, there is question to whether or not there’s a spot for him on the NHL roster.
Like Frederic, Studnicka is a natural center. This makes it extremely difficult to find a spot for him with the immense amount of depth the B’s have at center. Because of this, Studnicka’s seven NHL games have been mostly played on the right wing.
Additionally, many fans thought Studnicka didn’t have much of a chance to make the NHL roster this season because of the log jam at center. They though the Bruins wouldn’t want to move Studnicka to right wing full-time.
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However, the B’s seem completely fine with doing this so far through training camp as the 21-year-old has only been playing right wing. If this is the case for the regular season, Studnicka has a good chance of making the NHL roster as right wing isn’t nearly as deep as left wing and center.
Additionally, Studnicka seems to be the top option to replace David Pastrnak until he returns on February. Studnicka has been practicing with Bergeron and Marchand on the first line and was on the first line in yesterday’s scrimmage with Bergy and Bjork.
Next. Boston Bruins 2020-21 Depth Chart: Right Wing. dark
If Studnicka can show he can produce on an NHL first line, he may be able to beat out Ondrej Kase and Craig Smith on the depth chart for the rest of the season.