Don Sweeney almost earned some credit for a signing when news broke about the Boston Bruins and Matej Blumel. While some fans might not be familiar with the former Dallas Stars forward, he was one of the top scorers in the American Hockey League this past season and is also a native of Czechia. With David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha already on the team, the Bruins felt like an excellent fit for the scorer who needed a chance to crack an NHL roster.
Blumel has only been improving in his three years in North America. He never produced a massive amount of points in Czechia, but recorded 44 points in 58 games with the Texas Stars in 2022-23, which was only the beginning of his ceiling. Blumel spent the entire 2023-24 season in the AHL, recording 31 goals and 31 assists in 72 games.
His explosion that season made some wonder if Dallas would give him a look this past season, but he only managed to dress for seven games in the NHL, recording just one goal. However, he played another 67 games for Texas, increasing his goal total by eight to post 39 goals and 33 assists in 67 games.
Anyone with back-to-back 30-goal seasons in the AHL deserves a chance to crack an NHL roster, especially when he was nearly a 40-goal scorer. The Bruins were also a team that made sense to give him the opportunity, as they lack offensive firepower and goal-scoring ability. Boston had the room to try him out in the bottom-six and hope that something clicked.
Bruins went heavy on bottom-six talent
The key word in the previous statement was that the Bruins HAD room to try him out. If they had stopped signing players midway through the first day of free agency, Blumel would be an intriguing name entering camp. However, they loaded up on bottom-six talent, and now it's hard to see where Blumel would fit.
The Bruins haven't been shy in the past about signing these types of players and then letting them go during the preseason. If Blumel earned a spot in training camp, Marco Sturm would have no problems with putting him on the roster, but they did make his path to standing out much harder.
Blumel would've been a nice player to root for as he attempted to make the team along with his fellow countrymen. While we can't rule out that happening, it's likely that we'll have to root for him to continue tearing up the AHL with Providence early in the season and give the front office a reason to cut bait with some of the bottom-six signings and find him a place on the roster.