Mailbag: One dark horse candidate to make the Bruins out of training camp

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Hi, Mike - thanks for the question.

Yes, it's true.

Behind the Providence Bruins of the AHL, the Boston College Eagles have officially replaced the Maine Mariners as the ECHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins.

Okay, okay that's not true, and is simply a bad attempt at humor.

The Maine Mariners are of course still the Bruins ECHL affiliate, and the Boston College Eagles of the NCAA are completely unrelated to the Bruins despite having 6 Boston prospects on their team.

James Hagens (C/LW), Dean Letourneau (C/RW), Oskar Jellvik (LW/C), Will Moore (C/LW), Andrea Gasseau (C/LW), and Kristian Kostadinski (LD) are all hitting the ice in Chestnut Hill.

To be honest, I really don't see any real downside to prospects of the same NHL organization having the ability to gain familiarity with each other on and off the ice.

Now will all six of them become Bruins teammates in the NHL someday?

Highly unlikely.

But two or three of them probably will be starting with Hagens, Moore, and then we'll see from there.

The only situation where having too many prospects on the same team could be problematic is if the numbers game pushes one or more of them down the depth chart when they would otherwise be in a more prominent role and playing more developing minutes for another team.

But this hypothetical isn't the reality of the Bruins prospects on BC.

They are all going to be properly slotted based on their skill sets regardless of where their fellow college teammates NHL rights belong.

Hagens will rightfully be BC's 1C.

Moore will likely be their 2C.

One of Letourneau, Gasseau, or Jellvik will be BC's 3C while the other two are middle-six wingers.

And Kostadinski will slot wherever he does on BC's blue line as Boston's only defense prospect.

Intertesting question, Ed.

How are we judging this?

Based on the Bruins efforts to build a championship roster, or their efforts to build a roster that can establish structure and identity during a rebuild / retool process?

Because the former isn't reality.

The latter is.

With the pieces that the Bruins (rightfully) traded away at last year's deadline, combined with the lack of high end free agent players available on the market, Boston was never going to be able to build a championship contending roster in one offseason.

So with that in mind, their roster building efforts were geared towards icing a roster that can play a blue collar style of hockey built on goaltending, defense, physicality, structure, efficient special teams, and opportunistic scoring.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Bruins were self aware enough this offseason to stop putting bandages on a wound that needs surgery.

Sure they could have tried to over pay for Brock Boeser, or Nikolaj Ehlers - even though Boeser wanted to stay in Vancouver, and Ehlers wanted to play in a quiet hockey market in Carolina - but instead Boston elected to bring in players who could help implement structure and identity, and a culture predicated on hard work, professionalism, and a respect for the details of the game.

Boston knows that they still have to add external, high-end skill to the organization to integrate with the teams current core and eventually some of their high-end prospects like James Hagens.

But before doing that, the Bruins want to ice a lineup that can get back to basics and build a foundation that high end talent can join, rather then them joining before any of that is established.

So knowing Boston treated this past offseason simply as part 1, of their rebuild / retool, I'll give them a 7 out of 10 for their efforts at putting together a roster built for getting the train back on the tracks.

Obviously time will tell if my 7 out of 10 was too generous, or too dismissive.

Vinny!

You're more than welcome to leave me with a bold "but confident" prediction!

But allow me to give some color on just how bold this projection for Morgan Geekie may be.

Last season, Geekie recorded 33 goals, 24 assists, and 57 points in 77 games played.

This means that your prediction of 40 goals, 35 assists, and 75 points, would be a year over year production increase of 7 goals, 11 assists, and 18 points for this upcoming season.

Geekie, like most of his teammates, had a very slow start to his 2024-2025 season from a production standpoint accumulating just 2 goals, 5 assists, and 7 points through October, and November.

Quick math concludes that the majority of Geekie's production then came in the 2nd half of Boston's season scoring 31 of his 33 goals, 19 of his 24 assists, and 50 of his 57 points from December 1st - onward.

It's also worth noting that December 1st is around the time Geekie began playing alongside David Pastrnak for the remainder of the season.

As it pertains to projecting Geekie's production totals for this coming season, one could fairly argue that his abnormally high shooting percentage in the 2nd half of last season is an unrealistic metric to maintain for an entire season and that his goal scoring may tail off a bit from last years career high.

But on the other hand, one could counter argue that Geekie may exceed last years production if he has a better start to the season and scores more than 7 points through the first two months of play - which he likely will playing on a line with Pastrnak from the start of opening night.

Ultimately, I wouldn't be surprised if Geekie's goal scoring takes a small dip, but his assists tick up a little and he still eclipses last years point total - setting a new career high.

Morgan Geekie - plus or minus five points in either direction - scoring 30 goals, and 30 assists, 60 points ( so call it 55-65 points) is probably a fair production range to expect from him this season if he stays healthy and plays with Pastrnak all year.

So Vinny, I'm not here to tell you that your prediction isn't possible, but it may be just a tad too bold for me to predict at this moment.

That said, I hope you're right and that you can tell me, and all of us that YOU TOLD US SO!

Thanks for the question, marchy!

Since Bruins fans are among the most engaged, and intuitive around the league, i'm not sure there's a candidate to make the team that "no one" saw coming - but someone many aren't talking about as much as they should be is Dans Locmelis.

Dans Locmelis is a player Bruins fans should be keeping an eye on heading into training camp.

Boston's 4th round draft pick in 2022 recored 8 goals, 25 assists, 33 points, in 40 games played this past season as a sophomore for UMass Amherst in the NCCA.

He then turned pro at the end of his college season and lit up the AHL during a brief stint for the Providence Bruins scoring 3 goals, 9 assists, and 12 points, in 6 games played.

Locmelis then had a strong IIHF World Championship tournament for Latvia where he had 6 points in 6 games played, leading the team in goal scoring with 4.

He even caught the attention, and gained respect from one of the best players the game has ever seen (Sidney Crosby) along the way.

Now while I believe Locmelis has an opportunity to make the Bruins out of training camp, he's going to have some competition.

Based on how the forward lines ended last season, combined with the projected slotting of certain free agent acquisitions, here's what we can expect the Bruins lines to look like heading into camp:

Morgan Geekie - Elias Lindholm - David Pastrnak

Pavel Zacha - Casey Mittelstadt - Viktor Arvidsson

Tanner Jeannot - Fraser Minten (inside track, not a guarantee) - ?

? - Sean Kuraly - Mark Kastelic

Internal candidates for RW3: Dans Locmelis, Matt Poitras, Matej Blumel, Alex Steeves, Marat Khusnutdinov, Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov

Internal Candidates for LW4: Michael Eyssimont, John Beecher, Marat Khusnutdinov (again)

Now if Locmelis has a lights out, undeniable, head-and-shoulders above the competition training camp, then he should make the team - as should any of the other internal candidates if they were to perform as such during camp.

But if he has just an okay, or good but not great camp compared to other roster candidates, then he'll more than likely be sent down to Providence due to his waiver exempt status.

Either way, Locmelis is my dark horse candidate to make the team heading into training camp.

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That does it for this week, thank you for reading along!