NHL Notebook: Ranking Top 20 Bruins prospects (5-1): Usual suspects headline young pool of talent

With the NHL Draft and Development Camp in the rearview mirror, it’s time to run through our annual review of Boston’s prospect pipeline and unveil our latest top 20 rankings.  

Yes, the B’s don’t boast the most stacked prospect pipeline in the NHL, but due in large part to some solid returns from drafts in 2020 and beyond, Boston is starting to feature some high-end youngsters who could be on the cusp of breakout campaigns this year - be it in college, juniors or even in the pros.  

(Note: We’re setting the cut-off for what constitutes as a “prospect” with players who have earned NHL reps in two or more seasons. As such, guys like Jack Studnicka, Oskar Steen and Jack Ahcan have graduated and won’t be included here.)  

After starting off this week with our No. 20 - 11 rankings, and later sorting through No. 10-6, let’s close out our rankings with No. 5-1. 

5. Brett Harrison - C

Age: 19
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 185 pounds
2021-22 Stats (OHL): 65 games — 27 goals, 34 assists
Shoots: L
Drafted: Round 3, No. 85 overall - 2021

In a prospect pipeline that’s filled with young players with easy-to-gauge floors but murky ceilings when it comes to top-six potential, a young pivot like Harrison offers some intrigue for a B’s franchise that desperately needs another skilled center to arrive on the scene in the next few years. 

From our breakdown of Harrison during Development Camp earlier this month: 

Drafted in the third round of the 2021 NHL Draft, Harrison played limited reps in Finland in 2020 after COVID wiped out the OHL season, but the young center rebounded with Oshawa in 2021-22 — ranking second on the Generals with 61 points (27 goals, 34 assists) over 65 games.  

Still, the 19-year-old Harrison has a lot of room to grow, be it his D-zone details or the need to put more weight onto his 6-foot-2 frame. Harrison had a few quiet days to open camp, but had a strong showing during Friday’s scrimmage — lighting the lamp for Team Black before setting up a tally for teammate Jamie Engelbert on the next shift.   

Yeah. I feel like I'm competing with all the players here and I'm just trying to mostly focus on myself right now and try to develop my game,” Harrison said. “I'm just trying to do battle with the guys out there on the ice and trying to impress the management — but also try to keep developing my game for myself.”

There’s a lot to like about Harrison’s skill-set, especially in the offensive zone. And given that some of the current faults in his game are expected bumps in the road that should be smoothed out over time (weight, D-zone details), it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if the London, Ontario native puts forth a monster season for Oshawa in 2022-23.

Now, the hype train surrounding Harrison likely won’t gain steam until the young forward eventually makes the jump to the AHL and begins stuffing the stat sheet there. But given Boston’s desperate need for talent down the middle, Harrison at least stands as a glimmer of hope on the horizon. 

4. John Beecher - C 

Age: 21
Height: 6-foot-3
Weight: 209 pounds
2021-22 Stats (NCAA): 34 games — 6 goals, 9 assists
Shoots: L
Drafted: Round 1, No. 30 overall - 2019

Beecher is an interesting prospect to gauge at this juncture of his career.

When it comes to the aforementioned narrative surrounding prospects with solid floors but questionable ceilings, Beecher likely stands as the poster child of such discourse — considering that the 2019 first-rounder didn’t see his offensive numbers pop during his collegiate career at Michigan (19 goals in 81 games),

Still, even if Beecher doesn’t necessarily have the finishing talent and O-zone creativity needed to morph into a 2C at the next level, his established skillet (a sturdy 6-foot-3 frame, elite skating tools, crisp transition talent and a whole lot of snarl) could make him, at the very least, a mainstay in Boston’s bottom-six grouping for the next 5+ years.

Yes, Beecher was a first-round pick. And yes, he likely won’t be a franchise center. But if he can essentially become a suped-up, more ticked-off Sean Kuraly and thrive in that role moving forward … there’s a whole lot of value in a player like that.

And while Beecher’s scoring numbers with the Wolverines were rather discouraging, it wouldn’t shock me if he eventually becomes an NHLer capable of giving you 25+ points per year, along with a regular dosage of strong two-way play and a bevy of bone-crunching hits against the opposition.

From our Dev Camp breakdown: 

A promising start last spring with the P-Bruins (three goals, five points in nine games) does offer some hope that Beecher’s game might translate better to the pro game — a scenario that Boston sure hopes comes to fruition.  

“I think you've seen a maturity growth,” Bruins Director of Player Development Jamie Langenbrunner said of Beecher. “There's just a different mindset he's had and he is really beginning to understand what's going to make him an effective player. He's building that consistency into his game that he's going to need to have it at this level and there's still some work to do, we think, in there.  

"But he's taken the right steps and I think that the first few years in school were a little bit of a battle for him in finding that and the injuries didn't help. But a healthy year last year, really bought into the role that they needed him to do, which was being a third line, penalty-kill guy and more of a shutdown (player) and he did a very good job and scored some timely goals as well. And then he came to Providence and played really well for us, stepped right in and showed us his ability to skate and the attributes that are gonna give him a chance to be a good NHL player.”

3. Georgii Merkulov - F

Age: 21
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 181 pounds
2021-22 Stats (NCAA): 36 games — 20 goals, 14 assists
Shoots: L
Drafted: Undrafted NCAA free agent - signed 2022

After sorting through scores of B’s prospects tagged with the “high floor / low ceiling” label, we finally arrive at perhaps the top “boom or bust” youngster in Boston’s system in Merkulov.

Few players in Boston’s system possess Merkulov’s offensive creativity and panache — which is probably why the B’s had to have been doing cartwheels when they got the 21-year-old winger to sign a contract after a standout freshman season at Ohio State (20 goals, 34 points in 36 games).

"Super skilled,” Bruins player development coordinator Adam McQuaid said of Merkulov. “I think he's pretty competitive. We had him in Providence at the end of the year and it was a fairly seamless transition … The skill level is there — things that you can’t teach. So that's what excites us about him for sure.”

If all goes right in his development, Merkulov absolutely has the tools in his arsenal to be a lethal top-six talent — as evidenced by his solid start with Providence at the tail end of last season (five points in eight games).

However, some patience will be required when it comes to Merkulov and rounding out his overall game. 

“That’s been an issue since I was like 13 years old,” Merkulov said of his lapses in the D-zone. “I’ve been working on that in school, in juniors. Even when I played for Youngstown, the coaches would say scouts always ask about you but they don’t like how you play in the D-zone so you have to be better and you will have success. Same as here in Boston. They always say ‘D-zone, D-zone, D-zone.”

Don’t be surprised to see Merkulov both orchestrate some highlight-reel tallies and take his lumps down the other end of the sheet during his first full season in Providence. But so long as Merkulov remains committed to rolling with the punches and improving his 200-foot game, his stock should continue to soar.

He’s got the playmaking vision and the O-zone flash that you can’t teach — especially when compared to a majority of other B’s prospects. 

2. Mason Lohrei - D

Age: 21
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 194 pounds
2021-22 Stats (NCAA): 31 games — 4 goals, 25 assists
Shoots: L
Drafted: Round 2, No. 58 overall - 2020

When the Bruins selected Lohrei — an over-ager in the USHL — with their second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, it drew a … mixed reaction, to say the least.

Not only was Lohrei not exactly tabbed as a second-round prospect on most scouting databases, there also just wasn’t a whole lot of film out on the big-bodied blueliner — who converted from forward only a few years back.

While the Wisconsin native was regarded as a very raw prospect that was going to need a ton of time to acclimate to higher levels of competition, Boston saw plenty of promise in Lohrei’s tantalizing blend of size and O-zone capabilities from the back end.

And so far, Boston’s gamble with Lohrei seems to be paying off.

At just about every step of his young career, Lohrei has managed to both dispel narratives and exceed expectations. After getting drafted, Lohrei returned to the Green Bay Gamblers and casually posted 59 points in just 48 games as their top D-man — an eye-catching stat line that was brushed aside by critics unimpressed by Lohrei’s ability to dominate fellow teens in the USHL, especially as a 19-year-old.

But then Lohrei went out and didn’t miss a beat with Ohio State this past season, logging top-pairing minutes and PP1 reps for a young Buckeyes roster. 

In total, Lohrei finished second on the Buckeyes in scoring (behind fellow freshman and B’s prospect Georgii Merkulov) with 29 points (four goals, 25 points) in just 31 games, ranking fourth in the NCAA in scoring among freshman defensemen.

You could have made the argument that Lohrei was ready to make the jump up to Providence this past spring, but the 21-year-old defenseman plans on returning to Columbus for at least one more season — where he’ll look to continue to tack some muscle onto his 6-foot-4 frame and hone his D-zone skills. 

“Definitely just getting stronger defensively — being more physical, harder to play against,” Lohrei said of what he’s focusing on with his game. “ I talked a lot this year with Jamie and Adam (McQuaid) about working on my stick, working on my gap, closing quicker and faster. I want to play against the other team's best players and shut them down. It's something I take a lot of pride in, keep working on that."

It still remains to be seen what type of player Lohrei could be at the NHL level if all pans out. Is he a third-pairing, offense-first blueliner who could run your power play while earning sheltered minutes at 5v5 play? Is he a potential top-four stalwart like the 6-foot-3 John Carlson? Or is he somewhere in between? (Which would still be a pretty damn good player). 

Whatever tier Lohrei eventually falls into, he should, at the very least, be an everyday NHLer who will be able to etch his name on the scoresheet with some regularity.

"His frame — he's filling out,” Bruins Director of Player Development Jamie Langenbrunner said of what stands out about Lohrei’s development. “He's going from a boy to a man. He carries himself just a little bit differently now. I think watching him during the season, unfortunately for you guys, you weren't able to see him. It's just his poise with the puck.   

“His ability to create and make plays and at 6-foot-5 or whatever he is, to move like he does? It's pretty impressive. I think the thing you'll get from all the staff around here on him is the way he carries himself in the room. Everyone really enjoys him and it's been great just having him here, even though he couldn't skate. He's progressing well.”

1. Fabian Lysell - RW 

Age: 19
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 176 pounds
2021-22 Stats (WHL): 53 games — 22 goals, 40 assists
Shoots: R
Drafted: Round 1, No. 21 overall - 2021

Yep, no surprise here.

Considering the 19-year-old Lysell could be logging reps with the Bruins as soon as this year, it was pretty much a given that the winger was going to snag the No. 1 spot in our rankings — with the offensive dynamo seizing the crown after dominating down the stretch in his first season in North America in 2021-22. 

Granted, all it took was a few highlights of Lysell deking and dangling past skaters in Sweden to whet the appetite of Bruins fans searching for some skill in Boston’s pipeline, but Lysell’s O-zone talents translated overseas once he made the jump to the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. 

It wasn’t easy at first for Lysell when it came to moving far away from Sweden and acclimating to a different brand of hockey in Vancouver. But once Lysell started to settle in, his scoring took off — including a dominant postseason run in which the forward recorded 21 points (four goals, 17 assists) in just 12 playoff contests. 

While the upcoming 2022 World Junior Championships prevented Lysell from participating in this month’s Development Camp, it does seem like Boston is leaving the door open for Lysell to compete for a spot on the NHL roster out of training camp this fall — a testament to both Lysell’s talents and Boston’s desire to inject more youth into its lineup.

“He'll determine where he plays next year," Don Sweeney said of Lysell. "Boston, Providence, or Vancouver [WHL]. We think he's certainly talented enough to play in any one of those three places, and he's proven he can put up big numbers in the WHL and see if physically he can handle the next steps, be it in Boston or in Providence. We're excited about what his progression will dictate."

But, as we noted last week, even if Lysell doesn’t leapfrog a few established veterans and make his debut with Boston in October, that doesn’t mean that his stock has dipped at all. Lysell is a true blue-chip prospect, but he could still use some seasoning down in Providence, especially when it comes to holding his own against much bigger and stronger opponents.

But be it a full season down in Providence or even a few months in the AHL, Lysell’s eventual path to the pros shouldn’t change the fact that Boston has a potential top-six weapon waiting in the wings. And he could start to work his O-zone magic as soon as this season. 

ODDS AND ENDS

Well, if you were expecting any sort of clarity regarding both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci’s contract situation, I wouldn’t bother with worrying about it over the next few days. Both Bergeron, Krejci and a whole assortment of both current and former B’s players are currently in Italy celebrating Tuukka Rask’s wedding. 

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Well, the NHL’s apparel deal with Adidas sure didn’t last very long — with the agreement between both parties set to expire after the 2023-24 season, per ESPN. Adidas, which took over for Reebok as the NHL’s official uniform supplier back in 2017, has had a pretty memorable run with the NHL over their short time together — be it the company’s focus on marketing individual players (a must in today’s media landscape) or its array of Reverse Retro sweaters. It will be interesting to see which sporting apparel company is next in line to strike a deal with the NHL, although it is a shame that a pretty innovative and creative entity like Adidas is apparently ready to move on already.

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After a majority of free agents inked their deals on the first or second day of the UFA open season in mid-July, the last few big fishes are starting to get reeled in — including John Klingberg, who likely isn’t all that happy about signing a one-year deal with Anaheim (he fired his agent shortly before putting pen to paper on his contract with the Ducks). And while all signs still point to a reunion between David Krejci and the Bruins, one has to wonder if Boston once again might kick the tires on Nazem Kadri, who might have misread the market while in search of a major payday. He’ll still likely cost at least $7 million per year, but if Kadri can be had at that AAV, especially on perhaps a shorter-term deal, he would fit into Boston’s current “win-now” window. Again, Krejci still makes the most sense, especially when considering the cap-related complications. But if things go haywire between Boston and No. 46, a guy like Kadri stands as a damn good contingency plan.