Nobody would blame Alex Steeves if he felt like he could relax just a little based on carving out an NHL roster spot for himself in Boston last season, getting into some Stanley Cup playoff games and ending it all with a stint as one of the best players on Team USA at the IIHF World Championships last spring.
The 26-year-old Steeves played 43 games with nine goals and 16 points and, in the process, earned himself a two-year contract extension with a cap hit of $1.625 million per season. Unfortunately for the Bedford, New Hampshire native, he was a healthy scratch for most of the rest of the season (just six games played for the B’s following the Olympic Break) after signing the contract extension, though he did end up back in the Black and Gold playoff lineup for the final few games of the first-round playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Team USA experience certainly put a nice bow on the end of a very eventful, important hockey season for Steeves, but he has his eyes wide open headed into a very competitive training camp situation next month for the entire Bruins forward group.
“To be honest, [the contract] doesn’t really help,” said Steeves, when asked if he felt like he’d made it. “I don’t feel like I’ve made it. I’ll feel like I’ve made it when I’m a guy who never comes out of the lineup and is a real stable NHLer. I am that caliber of player, and I know I’m getting better.
“But the way things ended last year, there’s no complacency in my game or who I am as a person.”
To Steeves’ point, there are a slew of bottom-6 forward candidates for the Bruins headed into training camp with Mark Kastelic, Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly, Mikey Eyssimont, Lukas Reichel, Matt Poitras, the newly acquired Avalanche forward Ivan Ivan and 19-year-old James Hagens all joining Steeves in the crowded field looking for NHL jobs on Boston’s third and fourth line.
Even a higher-end center like Fraser Minten or Elias Lindholm could be in the mix for the third line center spot, as well.
At least a couple of those players probably aren’t going to be on the NHL roster, so it stands to reason they’ll either be displeased to be in Providence, potentially lost on waivers or traded before the season starts given the overwhelming depth of capable players that Boston is enjoying headed into the preseason.
In the past, training camp has always been a stressful time for a guy like Steeves, who came into the pro ranks as an undrafted player who’s had to fight his way to the top of the organizational depth charts in both Toronto and Boston.
”I think sometimes in the past I’ve carried so much stress going into the camp and you wonder about what this is going to be, what’s that going to be. I really just want to go into this camp thinking about how can I make this team better, how can I show that I’m the guy for that job,” said Steeves, who was speaking to reporters at the Bruins Annual Back-to-School event at TD Garden this past week. “I think it’s probably not worthwhile to think about other people too much, just because there’s so much organizationally that’s out of my control. So I’m just trying to go in with confidence and playing my best hockey. That’s all I can really do.”
In replaying last season, Steeves admits he