A healthy Jakub Zboril could be an unsung hero on a banged-up Bruins D corps

The pending status of both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci continues to dominate the headlines during this sleepy stretch of the hockey offseason. But even if both top-six pivots do return, the Bruins are going to need just about every available body on their depth chart to pull on the rope — especially given the bevy of injuries that are set to sap this roster of star talent for at least the first month or two of the 2022-23 campaign.

With Brad Marchand (hip surgery) and both Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk (shoulder surgeries) on the mend, the Bruins are going to be particularly thin at critical areas of their lineup — especially on a D corps that, aside from Hampus Lindholm, is going to be pretty barren when it comes to personnel capable of impacting games down both ends of the ice.

And while the B’s at least have some solid pieces at left wing to temporarily account for Marchand’s absence (Taylor Hall, Jake DeBrusk) — filling the void at the blue line is a much more daunting task for Jim Montgomery and his staff.  

With Boston not exactly flush with cap space this offseason (rather, they still need to shed some money if they hope to sign Bergeron, Krejci and Pavel Zacha), the B’s are going to have to look internally and at low-cost journeymen in an attempt to field a full defense.

There are the usual suspects like Lindholm, Brandon Carlo, Derek Forbort, Connor Clifton and Mike Reilly (if he’s not dealt for cap relief). But other blueliners on one-way deals include Jack Ahcan, Connor Carrick and Jakub Zboril — who, despite the prolonged narrative surrounding his young career,  could be just what Boston needs further down in its D grouping. 

Now 25 years old, it can be easy to brush aside any talk of Zboril’s potential as an everyday NHLer, given both his extended development timeline and — through no fault of his own — his place in Boston’s infamous 2015 NHL Draft. 

But last season, Zboril was well on his way to finally putting it all together at the NHL level and quieting his critics. In his 10-game stint up with Boston in 2021, Zboril averaged 15:44 of ice time and recorded three assists — using his smooth transition game to routinely get out of sticky situations and avoid drawing the ire of Boston’s coaching staff.

The regular comparison I use for a defenseman like Zboril is a solid offensive guard in football. He’s not exactly bombastic and he won’t make a lot of year-end highlight reels. But the less you notice of him, the better he’s performing — with the Czech native’s bread and butter coming off of crisp first passes, sound reads and picking the time and place to play up with the puck. 

He might have been just an injury call-up last season, but Zboril was likely going to make things tough on Bruce Cassidy and Co. once the full roster was healthy — only to have any chance of sticking with the big club dashed when Zboril tore his ACL back in December. 

When Zboril last spoke with the media back in mid-May, he was already making good progress in his recovery — skating for close to four weeks and on pace to be a full go for training camp in September. 

At the time, Zboril wasn’t fretting over his spot in the lineup, due in large part to the sizable gains he made on the ice when he was healthy and thriving at the NHL level.

"I did it once. So I'm gonna be ready to do it again next year,” Zboril said when asked about fighting for a starting spot on this roster. “It's NHL, it's Boston Bruins — it's always a battle for a spot, every single training camp. So just gonna get ready through the summer and I'll be back and be ready to compete for my spot.”

Zboril should be feeling awfully confident going into the 2022-23 campaign. Not only should there be starting minutes available in Boston’s depleted D corps, but the young blueliner should also feel at lot more at ease at the NHL level — especially now that his longtime friend in Zacha (both hail from the same city of Brno in Czechia) is also set to don a black-and-gold sweater.

Add in the fact that the B’s signed Zboril to a two-year, $2.275 million contract extension even before it was announced that McAvoy/Grzelcyk needed to go under the knife, and it’s clear that Boston believes their 2015 first-round pick still has more to give at the NHL level. 

Even though Zboril’s game tape doesn’t exactly pop, his underlying metrics were awfully encouraging last season — with Boston holding a 66-36 edge in shots on goal during the 90:55 of 5v5 ice time in which Zboril skated on a third D pair with Reilly. 

Zboril’s encouraging returns last season — coupled with his ability to play on the right side when needed — should open the door for him to settle into Montgomery’s rotation this fall, where 18+ minutes could be up for grabs, along with both power-play and penalty-kill reps. 

Sure, Zboril is perhaps not the top-pairing stalwart that the B’s projected he’d be back in 2015. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t offer value to this Bruins team — especially on a defense that is going to need all of the help it can get.