What can the Bruins expect out of Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson? taken at Warrior Ice Arena (Bruins)

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What can the Bruins expect out of Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson?

By Conor Ryan

Nov 9, 2018 • 7:55 pm

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After a full year of seasoning down in the AHL, a starting role with the Black and Gold seemed poised to fall right into center Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson’s lap.

A roster spot wasn’t guaranteed for the 22-year-old skater, but with the departure of Riley Nash in free agency,  a vacant role at the third-line pivot was up for grabs — with the two-way BU product expected to beat out younger competition in Trent Frederic and NHL regulars in David Backes and Sean Kuraly.

Then the actual preseason happened, in which Forsbacka Karlsson failed to capitalize on his window to impress the B’s top brass with tepid play.

“JFK” is by no means a burner that’s going to compile a lengthy list of highlight-reel plays, but the B’s were clearly expecting more from a player lauded for having a refined, cerebral game — ultimately opting to send him down to Providence before the start of the regular season.

Now, following his promotion from the AHL on Friday, Forsbacka Karlsson will get another chance to prove his worth at the NHL level. Except this time, the stakes are even higher.



Sure, the onus will be on Forsbacka Karlsson to re-acclimate himself against NHL competition when the games actually matter — but the Bruins are putting all their chips in on JFK in hopes that he can spark a third line that has been largely dormant so far this season.

Speaking after Friday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena, Bruce Cassidy confirmed that Forsbacka Karlsson will center the third line against Toronto, with Danton Heinen skating to his left and one of Anders Bjork or Backes to his right.

“He's going to go in. He’s a centerman, so he’s going to go play center on the third line,” Cassidy said. “He’ll have Danton on the left wing. Right wing, right now Backes was there today, could be a different right winger.

"Guess to expand on that, we liked his training camp, didn't feel like he was ready to start, but he made some plays. ... We wanted him to work on certain things, we addressed the compete level in terms of winning pucks. Thought he had a decent start, he had a personal matter to take care of back home. He got back, got his feet under him and we made a decision to give it a go here. We'll see how it plays out for him. Hopefully he's up to the challenge."

Aside from an encouraging effort in Monday’s win over Dallas, the third line has struggled to get much of anything going — especially at five-on-five play this season. During just over 9:30 of 5v5 TOI in Thursday’s blowout loss against Vancouver, the Backes line was out for a goal against, while the B’s as a whole were outshot, 5-3, during that stretch.

Even though Heinen finally tallied his first goal of the season against Vancouver (on the power play, to be fair), the overall fit and production from that forward trio has left plenty to be desired, with Backes in particular struggling with zero points through 10 games and a 44.89 Corsi For Percentage.

Clearly, something has to give on that line — and Forsbacka Karlsson has the tools to add some stability to the bottom-six.

"We've looked at third-line spot and we've had some guys rotate in and out of there. He had done some good things early in training camp,” Don Sweeney said of Forsbacka Karlsson. “He's had some really strong games. He was also addressing a personal matter 10 days ago. We just felt like there was an opportunity there and see whether or not he can grab ahold of that. ... He's always been a guy that we've had in the mix and hopefully he's ready to take the step."

Tabbed as a player with “immense ability” by Providence Bruins head coach Jay Leach back in September and “Patrice Bergeron 2.0” by his former BU teammate in Matt Grzelcyk, Forsbacka Karlsson projects as a dependable center with a developed 200-foot game and room to grow.

The comparisons to Bergeron may not be fair, but Forsbacka Karlsson drew raves during the start of training camp for his skill at the face-off dot and ability to make high-end plays.




Does he have the potential to be a top-six regular? That’s yet to be determined. But with his already established skillset, JFK has the ability to be a reliable center that can kill penalties and contribute without being a detriment to the club down the other end of the ice.


After tallying 32 points over 58 games last season with the P-Bruins, Forsbacka Karlsson started slow following his demotion down to Providence this year, tallying one goal and adding three helpers over nine games played.


Finding his game and asserting himself has been the most daunting challenge for the Stockholm native during his previous stints up in the NHL — with Sweeney noting that grit and competing hard on the puck are areas of his game that he's still trying to round out.


Based on the current state of the B’s third line, it looks like he’s going to have to learn those finer details on the fly.


“It's something that he's going to continue to work on,, but he's very responsible player who can make plays, he can skate and can cover ice,” Sweeney said. “Really, he hasn't been on the ice for goals against, so he really hasn't been a defensive liability from that standpoint. Very responsible player, two-way player. Has the attributes offensively and the ability to skate.


“Now he just has to get comfortable in those situations and understand the compete level it takes to play in the National Hockey League. If it's not here and he's not ready, he won't be here."

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