For the first time since early June, full-squad practices are set to return to Warrior Ice Arena — as the Bruins released their 2021 training-camp roster on Tuesday evening.
Boston’s training camp will officially commence on Wednesday with off-ice testing before starting two sessions on the frozen sheet at Warrior on Thursday morning. The B’s will only have three full days of on-ice work before beginning their preseason slate on Sunday with a road tilt against the Capitals.
Here is the full training-camp roster for the 2021-22 Boston Bruins:
Forwards: Samuel Asselin, Patrice Bergeron, Anton Blidh, Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk, Matt Filipe, Nick Foligno, Steven Fogarty, Trent Frederic, Jesper Froden, Curtis Hall, Taylor Hall, Brett Harrison, Erik Haula, Cam Hughes, Joona Koppanen, Karson Kuhlman, Jakub Lauko, Curtis Lazar, Fabian Lysell, Brad Marchand, Ian McKinnon, Tomas Nosek, David Pastrnak, Zach Senyshyn, Craig Smith, Oskar Steen, Jack Studnicka, Eduards Tralmaks, Alex-Olivier Voyer, Chris Wagner
Defensemen: Jack Ahcan, Victor Berglund*, Brandon Carlo, Connor Clifton, Josiah Didier*, Noah Dorey, Jack Dougherty, Derek Forbort, J.D. Greenway*, Matt Grzelcyk, Tyler Lewington, Brady Lyle, Ryan Mast, Charlie McAvoy, John Moore, Aaron Ness, Andrew Peski, Mike Reilly, Urho Vaakanainen, Nick Wolff, Jakub Zboril
Goaltenders: Callum Booth, Jeremy Brodeur, Troy Grosenick, Kyle Keyser, Jeremy Swayman, Linus Ullmark
*Injured player
Here are some quick takeaways regarding Boston’s crop of 58 players set to arrive at Warrior on Wednesday.
Ness, Dougherty added to roster
While some of the intrigue with training-camp rosters involve clubs bringing in veterans and other wild cards on PTO (professional tryout) deals, the 2021-22 Bruins’ crop of late additions aren’t going to steal many headlines.
Of note, the B’s brought in a pair of potential AHL contributors in defensemen Aaron Ness and Jack Dougherty — who, at the very least, should bolster some of the depth on an already banged-up portion of Boston’s organizational depth chart.
Even though Boston will use this camp to determine a regular on the right side of its third D pair (Connor Clifton is the favorite) and the rest of its NHL depth, Ness and Dougherty might have been brought in to address a Providence D corps that will already be without at least three potential contributors to open camp — as Don Sweeney confirmed over the weekend that Josiah Didier, Victor Berglund and J.D. Greenway are all sidelined with injuries to open the new year.
Ness, 31, previously signed a PTO deal with the Kraken, but might have been swayed by the chance for a better opportunity in Boston — even if it might be a featured role down in the AHL ranks for the time being. Ness has established himself as an offensive conduit from the blue line (at least against AHL competition), posting 260 points in 536 career AHL games.
Dougherty, 25, hasn’t punched his ticket up to the NHL ranks yet but has logged five seasons in the AHL — including the last two with the Belleville Senators. Again, I wouldn’t waste much time reading the tea leaves with Boston’s new pieces, but they are logical additions for further down on the franchise’s pipeline.
Bottom-six logjam
Finding the proper pivot to slot into that crucial 2C spot might be the most pressing question entering Boston’s training camp, but the most complicated one might involve a look further down the lineup — as there are a number of candidates all vying for six coveted spots on Lines 3 and 4.
At this point, we’ll roll with the scenario that Charlie Coyle lands the 2C spot out of camp, with the third line likely featuring Jake DeBrusk and two free-agent pickups in Erik Haula and Nick Folingo.
Tomas Nosek sure seems like a lock for the fourth line, but beyond that – things could get interesting. While the safe bet is for guys like Trent Frederic, Curtis Lazar and Chris Wagner to be the first men up to round out a Nosek-centered line — those wingers might be looking over their shoulders for most of camp, with names like Jakub Lauko, Cameron Hughes, Karson Kuhlman, Oskar Steen and Zach Senyshyn all vying for a chance to earn meaningful NHL reps from the get-go in 2021-22.
Both Bruce Cassidy and Sweeney have regularly stressed the importance of internal competition within the organization when it comes to getting the most out of its pool of talent. That will be evident once again when it comes to sorting out the pieces on Boston’s fourth line.
