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).
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.