This Bruins prospect has a chance to make the roster

Going into the 2023-24 season, the Boston Bruins have a few question marks hanging over their heads. Whether that is who is going to be starting in goal, who is going to be the top two line centers, or, perhaps the biggest question of them all, who is going to be the captain of the team.

The Bruins have had a bit of an up-and-down offseason with losing some of their cornerstone players from last season; however, as the saying goes, with every cloud there comes a silver lining.

With all the departures from last year’s team, Fabian Lysell finally has a chance to make his mark in in Boston to start the year.

The former first-round pick out of the WHL, comes into his second professional season extremely determined to make the roster, according to NHL.com’s Joe Pohoryles.

After an injury-plagued season in his first professional season with the Providence Bruins, Lysell is actually poised to make the next step despite being limited to playing in just 54 of 72 regular season games, in addition to three playoff games.

According to EliteProspects.com, 57 total games, Lysell scored 14 goals, and collected 24 assists (38 points). While these may seem like down numbers, with a shortage of wingers – specifically on the right side – he has a chance to make the roster on one of the lower lines where he can score, and focus on the physical side of his game.

To that point, an ideal line at the bottom this year could feature Lysell on the right side with Milan Lucic on the left, and Trent Frederic at center making it a physicality-centered line, or maybe even James van Riemsdyk, and Jesper Boqvist at center if you want a scoring-centered line.

What does Lysell bring to the table that is really needed?

One thing that Lysell brings to the table that not a lot of the other Boston wingers bring to the table is his speed, and ability to find teammates down the ice.

The Elite Prospects 2021 NHL Draft Guide had this to say about him:

“His skating form is nearly perfect, with great posture, depth, and flexibility at the ankles, knees, and hips, giving him straight-line speed and two-step quickness to burn. Lysell spots teammates through layers, and has the deft touch to get them the puck when the time is right. He scans regularly, reloads to support his defen[s]emen, tracks well through the neutral zone, and his work rate never wanes.”

Lysell even showed his uncanny ability to get to the gritty areas in Bruins’ Development camp this season. Causeway Crowd’s Tommy Calautti was at Day 5 of Development camp, and was impressed by what he saw.

Calautti even posted on X that, and said that Lysell “seems like he’s the one [who was] pulling the strings” even when he didn’t have the puck, and even ranked him as the Bruins top prospect just five months ago.

Lysell even showed his uncanny ability to control plays, before his time with Boston.

In his one season with the Vancouver Giants of the WHL. In his one season there, he played in 53 regular season games where he was able to rack up 22 goals, and 40 assists (62 points).

In addition to the 53 regular season games, he also skated in 12 playoff games, where he scored four goals, and tallied 17 assists (21 points).

It remains to be seen if he actually makes the roster out of the preseason, but given the lack of depth that Boston appears to have in the bottom half, it wouldn’t hurt to see him at least start the season up with the big club.