The year of the Boston Bruins' prospects is continuing on in the USHL, as Cooper Simpson is showing no signs of slowing down. The 2025 third-round pick had some evident offensive skills once you broke down his clips after the Bruins selected him, but his emergence as one of the top scorers in the USA's best junior league is something no one really saw coming.
Simpson has been near the top of the scoring race for the entire season, and despite some questions about whether he could keep up the pace, he has been taking the league by storm. He and Buffalo Sabres prospect Ryan Rucinski have been forming quite a dynamic duo for the Youngstown Phantoms.
It’s a big weekend in the @USHL as 4 of the leagues top 5 scorers will faceoff against eachother.
— Jonny Lazarus (@JLazzy23) February 5, 2026
Ryan Rucinski, Cooper Simpson and the @YtownPhantoms are traveling to the Ice Box to take on Alex Pelletier, Layne Loomer and the @LincolnStars.
Should be a great weekend! pic.twitter.com/RFA8MnzRD9
The one concern for Simpson is that he is notoriously a one-way player. The Phantoms are at the top of their division and have lost just nine games all year, but Simpson and Rucinski are barely holding their heads above water in plus/minus. While the stat is outdated and sometimes meaningless, being second in the league in points on one of the best teams and having a +3 rating isn't the greatest achievement.
The Bruins' goal after Simpson spends some years at the University of North Dakota will be to harness his offensive talent while also fine-tuning his defensive game. That goal might make fans shudder, as we've seen the development team attempt to do that with past prospects and fail miserably. Players like Fabian Lysell, who can't get out of Providence, come to mind.
*Prospect pool rankings tape interruption*
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) January 21, 2026
We need to start talking about Cooper Simpson (BOS). Very impressed by his tape this year. Will be a riser on my drafted list. pic.twitter.com/8Q3jCycWU7
Simpson will be a work in progress, but making him at minimum a replacement-level defender to fit the team's structure will be the only way this third-round pick has a future in Boston. It'd be a shame to waste his offensive talents, and a couple of years at UND might be what he needs to straighten things out. Will Zellers followed a similar path as Simpson, starring in the USHL offensively, before rounding out his game at UND and starring on the USA's World Junior team as a freshman.