The Boston Bruins completed a successful week of development camp with the bulk of their prospects honing their skills and getting a chance to interact with participating coaches and staff.
All in attendance were treated to familiar faces in a pair of coaches whose names are on the Stanley Cup as members of the 2011 championship squad: Chris Kelly and Adam McQuaid. Kelly works with Jamie Langenbrunner in a player development role, but if he wants to make the jump to coaching, he makes sense to fill the vacancy left by Jay Pandolfo (Burlington, Mass.) when the latter took the associate head coach position at Boston University.
Kelly, a respected defensive forward for the Ottawa Senators, Bruins and Anaheim Ducks in a career that spanned 845 games from 2004-18, would be the right fit. Intelligent, driven and articulate, he made the NHL the hard way, and his experiences would make him the kind of coach that the Boston players could relate to.
If Kelly makes the jump to the Boston coaching staff, McQuaid would be an obvious choice to slide into the vacant role as a player developer with the B’s. The rugged and tough defensive defenseman almost didn’t make the NHL because of concerns about his skating, but he put in the work down in Providence and willed himself to the highest level, where he developed into a key role player in Boston from 2010-18.
If the development camp was a bit of an audition to see what the dynamics looked like, Kelly and McQuaid passed the eye test. Bruins GM Don Sweeney is well positioned to make internal moves with individuals who know better than anyone else what the organization stands for.
Spotlight on: Mike Reilly
When the Bruins announced the extension of the unrestricted free agent on the eve of the market opening last week, it didn’t make as big of a splash as it probably should have. Reilly’s presence gives the team flexibility that would have been difficult to address had they opted to go in a different direction.
For starters, re-signing Reilly means that the left-shooting defenseman gets a chance to establish himself in the middle of the roster. Acquired from Ottawa at the trade deadline for a third-round pick in 2022 (since replaced by Boston when they moved Dan Vladar to Calgary for their 2022 third-rounder), Reilly is not a rental and in his prime at age 28.
He immediately distinguished himself after arriving from Ottawa as a player who could boost the B’s transition attack. Reilly gets back on pucks quickly and has a deft touch, able to make any range of hard, accurate passes. Though not a power play trigger man (Reilly’s career-high for goals in a season is 3 in 57 games with Montreal in 2019) He sees the ice and is able to process quickly. His defensive play got exposed in the playoffs, especially after Kevan Miller went down in the first round, but as long as he can play with a healthy Brandon Carlo on the right side, fans have to like this option as a second-pair that will be able to play a lot of minutes and be a stabilizing two-way presence.
The depth is not ideal at present, but re-signing Reilly addressed a significant need. Watch for him to put up career-best numbers this year in an established role that will bring out the best in what he does.
Breaking down Fabian Lysell
One player missing from the development camp festivities this week was the team’s first-round selection. Because he is unvaccinated and could not meet the NHL protocols governing participation in the event, fans did not get a chance to see the 18-year-old in person at Warrior Ice Arena.
Lysell was in North America during the draft and the following week, participating with Team Sweden in the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, Mich. The event was a preview of this winter’s World Jr. Championship (under-20) tournament. Team USA fielded two teams of top WJC hopefuls, with exhibition games played against their peers from Sweden and Finland.
It took only a few seconds of Lysell’s first shift against Finland to see how explosive of a skater he is. A roadrunner on skates, he's able to hit top speed in just a few slashing, powerful strides. There is also some real east-west elusiveness that makes Lysell a handful for defenders to match up with in open ice. He is also able to handle the puck well at full gallop, not sacrificing any of his speed as he can beat the defenseman off the edge and get to the net.
On the power play, he uses his natural offensive instincts with the added time and space to win races to loose pucks and generate shots on net. He can also make good seam passes to set up teammates for quality scoring chances.
On the downside, Lysell did not produce any offense. He had plenty of shots and scoring chances, but was unable to finish or find his way onto the score sheet with a single assist. Expectations might need to be tempered in his country’s top pro league for Lulea this season. Lysell might not put up much in the way of points, but competing against men will serve him well and expect the B’s to sign him and bring him over as soon as his contract in Sweden is up.
There is a high ceiling here without question, even with the lack of production in a summer event.
Development camp last call
John Beecher is a brilliant skater, and gets a pass for not being able to get much done with the puck five months after shoulder surgery. He won’t be himself for a while yet. But he did say something interesting about where he sees himself entering his junior season at Michigan that warrants mentioning:
“My role on the team, I think it will just kind of play out throughout the year and I’ll hopefully be in a shutdown role, top minutes, PK/PP and just do whatever I can to help the team win.”
We know that the Wolverines are loaded and he was trying to be humble, but here’s hoping that Beecher can do more than just play a shutdown role for his club. The Bruins did not draft him in the first round to be a defensive forward type of guy. With his size and skating, he’s capable of more than that.
One defenseman who didn’t get much of a mention but should have is Harvard recruit Mason Langenbrunner. The Minnesota native just won a state championship with the Eden Prairie Eagles this spring and will play in the USHL alongside fellow B’s prospect Andre Gasseau with the Fargo Force.
Langenbrunner is a smooth skater with a good all-around game. Although he didn’t make much of an impact in limited action with Sioux City in the USHL last fall, he’ll play a lot of minutes in Fargo in all situations for new head coach Scott Langer. He’s a longer term project, but he showed some impressive flashes at camp of being a skilled, intelligent three-zone player. With his dad Jamie assisting in his development and preparing him for success, don't sleep on him.
One Boston prospect who helped himself was Woburn, Mass. native Riley Duran. The Providence College-bound forward can skate and create. He’s raw, but when he competes hard on pucks and moves his feet, he’s difficult to contain. Going forward, he’ll need to keep improving his puck skills and shot, but after breaking into the NCAA slowly, he could emerge as a key contributor for the Friars in time.
When the B’s traded for James “J.D.” Greenway’s rights, it was certainly an intriguing move. The University of Maine defenseman is a real physical specimen at 6-foot-5, 212 pounds. He can skate and move pucks at will. What we wanted to see was more want to and consistency. His decision making and positional play have been a sticking point since Toronto made him a third-round selection five years ago. In fairness to Greenway, development camp drills and one scrimmage is no way to do a detailed analysis, but we were left wanting more.
Cornell left-shot defender Travis Mitchell looked the part this week as an undrafted camp invite. He’s tall at 6-foot-3 and gradually adding mass to his lanky frame. A former captain of the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, he was a respected teammate and led all defensemen on his team in scoring in 2019. He can skate, move and shoot pucks. He has room to improve his shot power and accuracy as he builds up his body. The 21-year-old also caught Bruce Cassidy’s eye, which is certainly not a bad thing. Watch for Mitchell to have a substantial role for the Big Red this season. Time will tell if the B's can sign him, but he looks like a sure bet to get multiple NHL offers when the time comes for him to turn pro.
