For the second time in less than a month, a Bruins player from that infamous 2015 draft class has requested a trade out of Boston.
Speaking with Mark Divver of Rinkside Rhode Island, Zach Senyshyn confirmed that he has requested a trade for the Bruins — with the 24-year-old winger looking for a fresh start elsewhere after failing to crack Boston’s NHL’s roster this season.
Senyshyn, who is in the idst of his fifth season with Providence, has only sparingly earned reps up with the big club over the last few seasons — posting three points (one goal, two assists) over 14 games up in the NHL ranks.
Even though the Bruins hoped that Senyshyn’s scoring talent with the Soo Greyhounds in the OHL would translate up to the NHL, his development path has gone down to a winding road — with Senyshyn developing into more of a bottom-six, north-south forward upon making the jump to pro hockey.
While Senyshyn has been effective with Providence so far this season (eight goals, 13 points in 21 games), he was not called upon when Boston had to tap into its reserves in search of players all year — even when this most recent COVID outbreak sapped the club’s depth chart.
Based on Senyshyn’s comments to Divver, it appears as though his stagnant place in Providence in wake of those call-ups was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“I mean, I’ve been a guy who was in the (playoff) bubble (in 2020), who has been a loyal soldier for a long time,” Senyshyn told Divver. “Time and time again, guys have been put ahead of me and those guys have been given the opportunity to develop and grow.
“If I was given some of those opportunities at the NHL level, maybe I would have been able to produce. Obviously, injuries plagued me when I was up there, but I still feel as though my game has always been there to be able to contribute and to at least be a positive effect on that group up there.”
Of course, Senyshyn’s slow development didn’t do him any favors, and the case could be made that fellow prospects such as Oskar Steen have leapfrogged him on the depth chart over the past year or so. But the argument is also there that Senyshyn didn't exactly get a fair shake when it came to getting the opportunity to carve out a bottom-six role.
Even though he was granted limited reps during his 14 games up with Boston (an average ice time of just 9:51 per game), Senyshyn was actually quite effective over his first few stints up with Boston.
During the 2019-20 season, a line featuring Senyshyn and Charlie Coyle outscored opponents, 2-0, in just 16 minutes of 5v5 ice time together — with Senyshyn's straight-line speed making him an effective cog as the F1 on a dogged Bruins forecheck.
Unfortunately, injuries often negated some promising debuts for Senyshyn — be it that 2019-20 test run (just four games played) or a 2020-21 campaign in which an upper-body injury sidelined him for an extended stretch.
Perhaps it’s just a case of poor luck more than anything, but Wednesday's news it’s still a tough look for the Bruins from an asset-management perspective — with Senyshyn now looking to start anew on a different club moving forward.
For as much as the Bruins have been maligned over the years due to that 2015 Draft, the narrative has somehow managed to tank even further over the past month — with fellow first-rounder Jake DeBrusk also requesting a trade from Boston a few weeks ago.