Boston Bruins: Lake Tahoe a preview of center for 2021-22?

Tomorrow, the Boston Bruins go up against the Philadelphia Flyers in an outdoor game at Lake Tahoe. Here, fans could be seeing a preview of what the team could look like up the middle next season.

As I said yesterday, the B’s will be without several regulars, including second line center David Krejci. Krejci will miss tomorrow’s game with a lower-body injury.

With Krejci out, Charlie Coyle will move up from third line center to second line center. This leaves open 3C, which I thought would go to fourth line center Sean Kuraly. However, the practice lines from today indicate this will not be the case tomorrow.

As of right now, head coach Bruce Cassidy looks like he’ll be giving Jack Studnicka a shot at 3C. This isn’t all that surprising as Studnicka is a natural center, but he’s been playing almost entirely right wing in the NHL.

Charlie Coyle at 2C and Jack Studnicka at 3C is a preview of the future for Boston Bruins’ fans.

With Krejci out and Coyle at 2C and Studnicka at 3C, B’s fans could be getting a preview of the future, and this future could be as early as next season.

There was no question that Coyle would eventually be taking over one of the two top center spots on this team at some point in the future given his recent six-year extension with an annual cap hit of $5.25 million, but Studnicka’s spot on this team is still uncertain.

As of right now, the Black and Gold are hoping Studnicka can become a top-six forward. He’s their top prospect and a natural center, but has been playing primarily right wing because of the log jam at center that Boston possesses.

He’s also had a hard time holding on to a NHL roster spot. Studnicka was being bounced around the lineup, including being a healthy scratch, but was sent down just over a week ago after recovering from an injury as Cassidy wasn’t planning to put him in the lineup that often.

But, as I stated previously, Coyle at 2C and Studnicka at 3C could be a regular occurrence as early as next season. At 35 years old, Krejci is on the final year of his contract and there’s a chance the B’s don’t re-sign him as they try to become a younger, faster team.

Before the season started, Krejci and Boston decided to wait until after the season started to start contract talks. However, there hasn’t been any noise about these talks since this report came out.

With this, I think there is a strong possibility that this is Krejci’s last season in Boston. I think the Black and Gold are fully embracing a youth movement and letting their aging veterans walk. So, it’s very likely that tomorrow at Lake Tahoe is a preview of next season in regard to what the Bruins will look like up the middle.