An interesting draft overall for the Boston Bruins, who traded away their first-round pick and selected a pair of goaltenders, including a Russian goalie, Yuri Ivanov, with their second-round pick (56th overall), which represented their highest pick in the draft. There was another goalie (Roberto Henriquez) taken in the sixth round out of the USHL, but also a Russian forward Matvei Kotkov in the fourth round (104th overall) and a Swedish forward Oscar Olsson (122nd overall) along with a D-man Jacob Vandeven in the fifth round (157th overall) and a D-man from the USHL in Cullen McCrate in the seventh round (216th overall) to round out their draft.
Some will scoff at drafting a pair of netminders in a year where there were tons of viable defensemen prospects to add to an organization that doesn’t have a ton of top-tier young talent beyond Frederic Brunet and Quinnipiac’s Elliotte Groenewold, and those naysayers will have a point to some degree.
But there’s also zero denying that the Bruins have earned fans’ trust when it comes to recognizing goaltending talent at all levels, whether it was drafting Jeremy Swayman in the fourth round or signing undrafted players like Brandon Bussi before he became a Stanley Cup hero for the Carolina Hurricanes.
Even undrafted Slovakian goaltender Simon Zajicek, who they signed out of Europe a year ago, looks like the kind of player that’s going to get NHL looks at a backup at some point in his career, and that doesn’t even mention Michael DiPietro after they traded for him out of the Vancouver Canucks organization and watched as he’s turned into a viable backup candidate after dominating the AHL.
Goaltender Development Coach Mike Dunham and Bruins goalie coach Bob Essensa have proven over the last 10 years that they know good goalies when they see them, and the Bruins are showing trust and faith in those evaluators.
There is zero wrong with that, even as the Bruins have a wealth of goalie talent at the NHL and AHL level with Swayman, DiPietro, Zajicek, and Joonas Korpisalo there, along with former Merrimack standout Max Lundgren.
“Obviously we selected two goaltenders and our guys have done a lot of work on that,” said Don Sweeney. “It’s not like you’re going to take a goalie every year [at the draft]. We just felt this year there were two players that we could select in [draft] positions that we really valued.
“It does take a long time and in [Ivanov’s] case he’s going to be in Russia for the next two years. So we’ll see where he’s at and sometimes it takes them a little to get to the next level [and eventually the KHL]. We’ll be able to monitor that because it’s going to be a long timeline and we wanted to make sure we got out in front of our depth at that position. So we attacked it today.”
It remains to be seen if it’s all going to work out for the Black and Gold, but one can understand them leaning into a clear strength right now when it comes to stockpiling at a position where they have consistently created NHL assets over a long-time span.
ONE TIMERS
*It feels like in today’s NHL, landing an impact player is as much about that player wanting to play for a specific team as it is about having the assets and salary cap space to go out and get the player. That seems to be the case with 24-year-old JJ Peterka, who arrives in Boston having a past history with fellow German Marco Sturm, and in particular with new assistant coach Matt McIlvane from their time together on German national teams from when Peterka was an 18-year-old during his draft year.
With Peterka having also played with and against Lukas Reichel in Germany and as former teammates in Buffalo with Casey Mittelstadt and Henri Jokiharju, the newly acquired forward should be a guy that can immediately help in terms of creating offense.
“It was pretty cool and special talking in German to [Sturm],” said Peterka of a phone call with the B’s head coach after the trade. “He said how excited he was and I am excited too…just ready to go to work with him. Obviously with McIlvane, we go way back and that was obviously our dream to be together at the NHL level since he coached me. We’ve always talked and had a good relationship.
“With Reichel I grew up playing against him all the time when we were kids and playing with him for the national team. Working out in the summer together so we have a pretty good and tight relationship over the years. I played with Mittsty and Jokiharju in Buffalo, so it’s good coming to a team when you know some guys, and familiar with the coach and some players. It’ll be super easy for me to fit in overall.”
The speedy, skilled Peterka was also saying all the right things about creating offense for the Black and Gold, and it feels like he’s just scratching the surface of his potential with career highs of 28 goals and 68 points a couple of years ago in Buffalo while showing excellent durability over his first four full NHL seasons.
“When I’m at the best I feel like I can basically score from everywhere,” said Peterka. “Making a lot of plays and taking a game over, that is one thing when I’m at my highest level that is one thing I can do for sure.”
*Don Sweeney said earlier this week that prospect Ryan Walsh will not be attending development camp next week, and that it was totally understood that the Cornell captain was doing it to focus on his offseason and final collegiate season. Sweeney said that Walsh had a shoulder injury a couple of years ago that impacted his offseason training and the player didn’t want to interrupt things with a trip to Boston in the middle of the summer after attending multiple development camps in the past.
“James Hagens is not going to be [at development camp] either, there's some reasons on that one. There's just, you know, where players are sometimes in their cycle of offloading, onloading work outside of things,” said Don Sweeney of Walsh coming off 10 goals and 33 points in 33 games for Cornell last season. “In Ryan's case, he just felt more comfortable, and we've done that [with other players]. Fraser [Minten] last year didn't come in, you know, for reasons. Guys have been here. Ryan's really, really familiar with the organization, as we are with him.
“So we're comfortable [with the situation], and players make independent decisions of that nature, especially if they've been here. They know what we're all about and what Adam [McQuaid] and his group are trying to accomplish for that period of time. It's okay. It's really about the training aspect. He missed all last summer from a shoulder injury. He had shoulder surgery, similar to Will Moore, you know, [and he was in] his recovery from surgery. So I think it's a good opportunity for him to be in his real build-out phase that he wanted to stay in rather than take time off for [development camp].”
Moore will attend development camp but is expected to be very limited in his participation, and the entire 2026 NHL Draft class for the B’s are also expected to be in Boston, including the large contingent of European and Russian players selected in the draft.
*The book for former first-round pick Fabian Lysell has officially closed for the Bruins as they dealt the 23-year-old forward to the Colorado Avalanche for bottom-6 candidate Ivan Ivan, a player who will be in the mix in NHL training camp.
Clearly the development wasn’t what anybody hoped for the Black and Gold after getting 12 NHL games a couple of years ago, and none last season while posting 17 goals and 42 points in Providence last season.
“I spoke to Fabian today. We want to wish him well. He has been a very productive player at the AHL level, but he probably hasn’t fully grasped what it takes to be an everyday player at the NHL level,” said Sweeney. “He took ownership of that today and we took ownership of ‘Could we have done more, and been better, to be supportive of his development along the way?’ Probably. He was really good at [admitting] that the grind making the jump to the pro game is a lot, and he came over at a very early age.
“It’s the right thing to do [for Lysell] professionally and personally. We’re excited about Ivan because he’s played games, he’s got experience and he’s got some versatility to his game. He’s a guy that’s worked his way up from being undrafted, to being unsigned, to being signed to an AHL deal and now playing NHL games on a really good team. We think the versatility is there and that the change of scenery will be good for him as he’ll compete for a job here.”
Credit the Bruins for getting something for a player they were likely going to non-tender in Lysell, but there’s no way around the fact that they missed with the late first-round pick they used to select him. What will be just as telling is what Lysell will do with the Avalanche organization after so many B’s prospect aficionados blamed the team’s development system, rather than the player himself, for ultimately failing in the umpteen opportunities he had in training camps and NHL stints to actually make an impact while securing a regular NHL spot.