Bruins
“The primary factor on this league is doing it on a night-to-night foundation.”
The chances haven’t been in Matthew Poitras’s favor for the reason that fresh-faced middle first stepped onto the ice at Warrior Ice Area Sept. 21.
The 2022 second-round choose’s playmaking poise was evident after a standout 2022-23 marketing campaign through which he dished out 79 assists in 63 video games with the OHL’s Guelph Storm.
However after simply two seasons of junior hockey, the prospect of the 19-year-old Poitras cracking the Bruins’ roster felt like an unbelievable situation only a few weeks in the past.
But it surely’s removed from not possible, as Milan Lucic can attest.
Lucic’s bruising fashion stands in distinction to Poitras’s means to evade punishment on the boards and orchestrate Grade A possibilities with slick feeds.
However the 35-year-old veteran is aware of what the promising prospect goes by.
“It jogs my memory of after I was a 19-year-old and nobody’s actually saying something to you,” Lucic mentioned of his coaching camp expertise in 2007. “However you retain getting put within the lineup, and that’s factor if you’re at that age, so good on him for his efforts thus far.”
Very similar to Poitras, Lucic was as an intriguing blue-chip ahead within the Bruins’ pipeline, however one which wasn’t considered as prepared for prime time within the 2007 season.
The expectation was that Lucic was going to return to the Vancouver Giants and assist his WHL squad defend its Memorial Cup title. However with every preseason sport, as Lucic belted opponents and wreaked havoc close to the crease, his odds of sticking within the NHL improved.
“They simply saved enjoying me,” Lucic mentioned. “So I used to be like, ‘OK, I assume that should be factor.’ So I simply preserve going on the market and exhibiting them what I can do.
“I believe the 2 of us have fully completely different ability units. So for me, I simply continued to be bodily and confirmed that I might hold with the large boys and all that kind of stuff.”
Up to now, Poitras has achieved little to make coach Jim Montgomery and the Bruins brass take into consideration pulling the plug on his preseason run.
In 4 preseason video games, Poitras has two targets and two assists. He has received 53.5 % of his faceoffs whereas logging greater than 16 minutes of ice time per sport.
His 5-foot-11-inch, 180-pound body raises questions on his means to face up to the punishment of an 82-game gauntlet within the NHL. However his playmaking and willingness to skate into Grade-A ice had Bruins captain Brad Marchand drawing comparisons to Maple Leafs All-Star ahead Mitch Marner.
Poitras will not be a point-per-game spark plug like Marner, however he has made a compelling case to stay round.
Montgomery famous final week that he’d prefer to have the roster largely settled earlier than the ultimate preseason sport Thursday towards the Rangers. Choices will likely be coming quickly for promising kids like Poitras, Johnny Beecher, and Mason Lohrei.
It’d be a large achievement if Poitras manages to take the ice when the Bruins start their centennial season Oct. 11.
However due to the switch settlement between the NHL and CHL, youngsters like Poitras (and Lucic in 2007) have restricted choices.
He’s not eligible to play in AHL Windfall this season. He both will beat the chances and keep on with the Bruins or log one other season with Guelph.
The Bruins can preserve Poitras for as much as 9 regular-season video games with out burning the primary 12 months of his entry-level contract. At that time, they must resolve whether or not to maintain him and start his three-year deal or ship him again.
The onus would fall on Poitras to capitalize on that nine-game trial and show that he has the technique of surviving a full 12 months with Boston.
”He’s obtained to play to his strengths, and the primary factor on this league is doing it on a night-to-night foundation,” Lucic mentioned. “As a result of should you’re doing it one out of 5 nights, then that’s not adequate.”
Lucic in the end logged 77 video games with the Bruins in 2007-08, securing his spot within the bottom-six group of forwards with a bombastic opening highway journey.
“I had a extremely nice highway journey,” mentioned Lucic, “and particularly that sport in LA the place I had a Gordie Howe hat trick 4 video games in. I believe that saved me right here for the remainder of the 12 months.”
Poitras might not need to drop the gloves to validate his spot, but when he’s to comply with in Lucic’s footsteps and leap from juniors to the Bruins, he’ll have to benefit from no matter further time is afforded him.
”I believe I’ve performed fairly nicely and I’ve achieved all the pieces I can,” Poitras mentioned. “So, simply assume I made it fairly troublesome on them.”
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