While all Boston Bruins’ eyes are going to be trained on James Hagens during the IIHF World Junior Championships when Team USA takes the ice, it’s another B’s prospect that is turning heads at the start of the international tournament.
It’s 19-year-old Will Zellers, who was the last player added to the Team USA roster, who’s starred with three goals in the first two games for the Red, White and Blue while outshining some of his more hyped teammates. The former third-round pick has shown off a tremendous shot and release during the first couple of games, and it’s easy to see why Zellers has been scoring so many goals at the USHL, college and international levels over the last couple of seasons.
Dude this kid Will Zellers is filthy pic.twitter.com/7nGEj1SEzO
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) December 28, 2025
Zellers was a late addition to the Team USA selection camp prior to the tournament and wound up on the final roster after an injury to one of the other players (Golden Knights prospect Trevor Connelly) expected to make the team, but all of that is a byproduct of an awesome freshman season at North Dakota where the forward has 10 goals in his first 18 collegiate games.
"Will raised his hand at North Dakota over the last three weeks and really propelled that team," said USA Hockey assistant executive director of hockey operations John Vanbiesbrouck. "He was so close to being originally named to the roster, but we just felt that he could add something, could play up in your lineup. When you have a guy that could do that, there was no point in just limiting ourselves to 15 forwards."
Zellers was the jewel from the Colorado Avalanche organization that came to Boston in the Charlie Coyle at the trade deadline last season, and joins a slew of assets like Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov and Casey Mittelstadt that were add to the team during last spring’s roster fire sale.
It looks like Zellers has the talent to be something truly special; however, as standing out at the World Junior tournament among your peers is a great barometer for future success at the NHL level for so many of these hopefuls.
"I've put a lot of work in, shooting like 10,000 pucks every summer," said Zellers to NHL.com. "I never want to be uncomfortable when I got the puck on my stick in a scoring chance. Practicing every angle, every type of shot, whether it's a snapshot, catch-and-release, slap shot ... there's no such thing as having too many shot selections in your tool bag."
Zellers leads all USA players with the three goals and four points through two games and is second on the team with a plus-4 rating after the wins over Germany and Switzerland, but James Hagens hasn’t been completely quiet either. Hagens has a pair of helpers and a plus-2 rating in two games after arguably being Team USA’s best forward last season as an underage player at the world juniors, and the No. 7 overall pick in last summer’s NHL Draft is just getting things going at the tournament.
What’s undeniable is that the future is bright for the Black and Gold with a pair of skilled, young forwards that aren’t far away from breaking into the NHL while playing starring roles on a Team USA group expected to go on a deep run in the tournament while going for a three-peat this winter.
ONE TIMERS
• It’s pretty clear at this point that Marco Sturm is getting a little frustrated by the Bruins' inability to lock things down defensively and get into the stingy mentality that helped them build win streaks in the first half of the season.
“We didn’t have the same confidence that we’ve had in the past and that’s what happens when you lose a few games in a row,” said Sturm of a six-minute stretch in the second period that ultimately lost them a game where they couldn’t generate enough offense to overcome their mistakes. “We just have to remember ourselves and remind ourselves what brought us success. It starts with playing solid defense and having that [we’re going to keep the score to] 1-0 mentality in some of these games.”
All it took on Saturday night in Buffalo was 10 minutes of distracted, half-hearted play where they gave up three goals in the first half of the second period, and that was enough to sink them for the entire game in a 4-1 loss at the KeyBank Center at the start of a long road trip. It’s a five-game losing streak for the B’s, who actually aren’t falling too far out of the playoff hunt despite the losing stretch because there is all kinds of parity in the Eastern Conference this season. But the Bruins enter next week tied for 24th in the NHL with 3.31 goals allowed per game, and they quite frankly aren’t going to make the Stanley Cup playoff cut if that number can’t improve in the second half of the season.
The other part of that coin, of course, is that they ran into a Buffalo Sabres team that’s playing their best hockey of the season and has won eight straight games while pushing to within striking distance of a playoff spot as well.
• Solid first couple of games for 24-year-old Russian defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok after claiming him on waivers from the Dallas Stars. He looks like a solid, defensive-minded blueliner that can make the requisite plays at the NHL level, and it was his play on the right side that allowed the Bruins to return Victor Soderstrom to Providence.
“He has a little bit of everything, I feel like he has a little bit of offense, he can defend,” said Sturm of Kolyachonok, who had a goal and three points in 11 games with the Stars this season. “I think he played some PK as well. We look at him as a depth guy, and hopefully he is going to get a chance [to show what he can do].”
The Bruins have had a flurry of transactions this weekend as they activated both Michael Callahan and winger Matej Blumel from injured reserve and send those players back to Providence.