How did the two Boston Bruins’ prospects that played in the 2021 WJC perform?
For the 2021 IIHF WJC, the Boston Bruins and their fans had the pleasure of seeing two of their prospects participate in the tournament. If it wasn’t for John Beecher testing positive for COVID-19 right before the finalized 25-man rosters were announced, the B’s would’ve had three prospects in the tournament.
However, without Beecher, Boston still had defenseman Roman Bychkov and forward Matias Mäntykivi in the tournament. They aren’t big names like Beecher (the 30th-overall pick in 2019) , but they were both drafted by the Black and Gold just like Beecher.
Bychkov and Mäntykivi were both drafted in 2019, like Beecher, just one round apart. Bychkov went 154th overall in the fifth round and Mäntykivi went 185th overall in the sixth round.
Now that you’re familiar with Bychkov and Mäntykivi, let’s take a look at how they did in the WJC.
Roman Bychkov – Defenseman
Born in Yaroslavl, Russia, Bychkov played the blue line for Team Russia in the 2021 WJC. Bychkov ultimately played all seven games of the tournament for Russia, registering three assists and a -2 plus/minus (+/-).
Bychkov started off the tournament being dressed but not playing at all in each of the first two games. However, in Russia’s third game he recorded three assists and played over 15 minutes.
Over the next four games, Bychkov would go pointless, but see ice time in every game. He would play over 18 minutes in the fourth game, over 12 in the fifth game, just over six in the sixth game, and over 18 again in the bronze medal game against Finland.
Matias Mäntykivi – Forward
Born in Lappeenranta, Finland, Mäntykivi joined Team Finland for the 2021 WJC. Mäntykivi suited up for just five of the seven games that Finland played and recorded just one assist with a +2 +/-.
For the first three games of the tournament, Mäntykivi was in the Finnish lineup. However, after going pointless through these three games, he would be out of the lineup for the next two games, scoring his lone assist in the bronze medal game against fellow Bruins’ prospect Roman Bychkov and Team Russia.
I wish I could tell you the exact reason why he missed those two games, but I can’t find a report. But, overall Mäntykivi was an afterthought on Team Finland. In the five games he played, he had just two where he had over 10 minutes of ice time. The other three games, he played less than four minutes each, including one where he didn’t play at all despite being dressed.
For both Bychkov and Mäntykivi, they didn’t have much of an impact for their team. Between the two of them, they had three games where they were dressed but played zero minutes and had just four assists in 12 combined games. Not a great showing from B’s prospects in this year’s WJC.