If we’re keeping it real here, the jury is 100 percent still out on what 22-year-old Fabian Lysell can develop into at the NHL level.
The winger hadn’t been able to push for an extended look at the NHL level prior this season’s end despite the Bruins being very much in need of scoring over the last couple of seasons, and even then Lysell only managed a single assist in his first 10 games up in Boston this season.
Still, there have been tantalizing flashes within those 10 games and the rookie enjoyed his finest moments in Sunday’s 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena while scoring his first career NHL goal.
FIRST NHL GOAL ALERT!! 🚨
— NHL (@NHL) April 13, 2025
Congrats on your first, Fabian Lysell!
🇺🇸: @NHL_on_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/7JwkdR3FS6
“Probably just my whole family, they’ve been supporting me my whole career,” said Lysell on TNT when asked where his thoughts went to after he scored his first one. “They were definitely on my mind, for sure.”
It was part of a very solid game for the former first round pick with the goal coming as he camped at the net front and slammed home a Pavel Zacha pass that found him wide open in front.
“I think it means a lot for a guy like him,” said Joe Sacco of Lysell getting his first one at the NHL level. “He sees himself as more of an offensive and certainly you want to produce if you’re in that role. Getting your first one in the National Hockey League is certainly a weight off the shoulders. I think this was his 11th game. So good on him.
“He’s doing some good things with the puck at times offensively. He’s attacking through the neutral zone and he’s attacking in the offensive zone. So there are some things to like in his game, for sure.”
It will all add up to an important offseason for Lysell when it comes to the Bruins. He will undoubtedly return to the Providence Bruins for their upcoming playoff run once Boston’s season is over after Tuesday’s home tilt against the Devils, and getting a little taste of NHL success could perhaps be the thing that finally lights a roaring fire under the Swedish winger.
If nothing else, he can see the possibilities now that might exist for him if he can push his game to another higher level to finally match his high talent ceiling.
“It’s been hard to crack the [NHL] roster, but I’m just trying to enjoy it out there and work hard whenever I’ve been called up,” said Lysell.
Then again there have also been ups and downs during his NHL stint in Boston much like there have been peaks and valleys in two merely okay AHL seasons in Providence prior to this stint with the Bruins. The B’s held him out of a game against the Washington Capitals a couple of weeks ago because it was going to be a nasty physical affair, a far cry from Sunday’s irrelevant game between the Bruins and Penguins where there was plenty of room to operate all over the ice.
The other side to Lysell’s short tenure in Boston could be to pump up his value for an offseason move as a trade chip as other dominoes are undoubtedly ready to fall this summer for the Black and Gold. To this point in his development, it would be coldly accurate to say Lysell has not lived up to the first-round investment that Boston made in him four years ago.
But anybody watching his skating speed on Sunday and his effectiveness when he’s confidently attacking with the puck, could easily imagine him still maturing into an effective top-6 winger at the NHL level with a little more strength, a little more confidence and perhaps a little more fire burning inside of him.
The talent is undeniably there in glimpses and flashes for a 22-year-old player still developing after three AHL seasons.
Not every prospect needs to end up a long-term player for the organization that drafted them in order for it to be a developmental success story, and Lysell could wind up being a prospect that helps them in trade rather than for the NHL club that selected him. Either way, Lysell now joins a number of feel-good stories with young Bruins players at the end of this season as Riley Duran, Michael Callahan, Fraser Minten and now the Swedish right wing have all had some good moments at the end of a forgettable regular season for the Bruins.
ONE TIMERS
- Joe Sacco confirmed earlier this week that Charlie McAvoy and Mark Kastelic are being shut down for the rest of this season in terms of playing games and will not appear in the final few B’s games of the regular season.
"The bottom line is where they’re at right now in their process, we feel, and the medical staff feels, they’re just not ready to play these last [three] games,” said Sacco.
It was expected with McAvoy and continues to underscore that his joining the team on the road during a tumultuous West Coast trip probably had more to do with providing some stable leadership than any hopes of a return during a season that had been lost for some time.
Kastelic, on the other hand, missed 20-plus games this season and hasn’t played since a March 20 road loss to the Vegas Golden Knights where he left the team and headed back to Boston due to an upper-body injury. Kastelic has missed time this season due to upper body injuries suspected to be concussion-related, so that’s going to be a bit of a concern heading into next season based on the rugged, physical style that he employs.
There’s also little doubt of Kastelic’s importance to the B’s play for their bottom-6 forwards next season and beyond after he signed a three-year contract extension midseason, so all of that bears watching moving forward.
- One thing to watch in all the question marks for Bruins' embattled management headed into the offseason facing tough questions and a tall task in retooling and turning things around? The somewhat nebulous “front office consultant” and “player mentor” title given to Zdeno Chara when he was hired to the Bruins front office midseason made it seem like it could have been some kind of minimal, nominal management role for a player that made Boston his home post-playing career.
But the 6-foot-9 longtime captain of the Boston Bruins has been a consistent presence around the team since coming on board, and it is not like the ultra-competitive Chara to go halfway in on any endeavor when he decides to participate. It will be interesting to see what kind of role he plays in an organization that pretty clearly is undergoing a bit of culture change inside the dressing room, and a fan base that still has a ton of trust in the players, like Chara, who delivered the last Stanley Cup to Boston in what’s now 14 long years ago.
- There is plenty of discussion about the state of youth hockey in Massachusetts, and rightfully so as by every single metric Minnesota is widening the gap over Massachusetts in terms of producing Division I college hockey players and skaters that go on to the pro ranks as well. The debate rages about the overall number of high-level players that Mass Hockey is producing, but there is no denying that the top-end kids are still being cranked out. That was evident again this week as the Rivers School lost three freshmen (Carter Meyer, Sam Pandolfo, Finn Sears) to the US National Team Development Program for next season.
Congratulations to Carter Meyer, Sam Pandolfo, and Finn Sears on being named to the 2025–26 U.S. National Under-17 Team! 🇺🇸 These players are NTDP bound and representing Massachusetts Hockey with pride! #MassProud #NTDP pic.twitter.com/PAugrZ0URg
— Massachusetts Hockey (@Mass_Hockey) April 10, 2025
Those three dominated ISL play as freshmen last season and actually played together as a line for Rivers two years ago as eighth graders more than holding their own against skaters three, four or five years older than them. If you are looking for what truly separates elite hockey players into actually being elite, the ones that can dominate and score against players two or three years older than them is about the best way to measure it at the younger ages.
Tip of the hat to Meyer (son of former NHL defenseman Freddy Meyer), Pandolfo (son of former NHL forward and current BU head coach Jay Pandolfo) and Sears for going to the national program, the highest honor a young hockey player can attain at their precocious age with the NHL Draft still several years away from them.