It has been a great 24 hours for the Providence Bruins, as they followed up an 8-0 thrashing of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Sunday night with the news that Mikey Eyssimont won the AHL Player of the Month for October. The Boston Bruins' castoff has done nothing but step up since getting called down to the minors, and the honor is well deserved after his 13 points in seven games in October.
It's a great story for Eyssimont, who might've seen his NHL future slip away after getting sent down and then watching the Bruins' youth perform well above him. He had few options to wear a Boston jersey again other than a string of injuries, which no player wants, but his play in the AHL is putting the rest of the league on notice if they need a depth addition.
For now, the energy forward will continue to star for Providence as they attempt to keep racking up wins and move back up the standings after a rough start to the season. Eyssimont wasn't even in the lineup for Providence's 8-0 win Sunday, as he recovered from taking a puck to the face in Friday evening's game. If the rest of the team can start scoring around Eyssimont, Trent Whitfield's squad could go on a run.
Mikey Eyssimont's case to re-join Bruins
Eyssimont has played so well that the Bruins should stop rostering eight defensemen and call him up to the NHL. Boston might rather see him play in the AHL than sit in the press box, but at this point, he deserves that opportunity. After Saturday's game, Eyssimont seemed like a good candidate to go to Boston with Jonathan Aspirot coming back down to Providence. Still, it seems like Marco Sturm is giving the defender another chance on Monday night.
It's an interesting wait-and-see situation for Eyssimont. Are the Bruins in the trade market and potentially shipping out a forward like Pavel Zacha, or even a defenseman, which would free up a spot for Eyssimont? Or are they shopping Eyssimont himself and want to keep him in the AHL to keep raising his trade value? Storing him in the NHL, where he may not play for weeks, would certainly knock that value down.
Nevertheless, Whitfield will enjoy having an NHLer in his lineup for at least a little while longer, hoping the Providence Bruins can turn it around.
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