The Bruins are heading into Tuesday night’s season opener against the New York Rangers at TD Garden with a clear message from management: the organization believes its next wave is ready to matter.
That was the theme running through the annual post-training camp press conference from President Cam Neely and General Manager Don Sweeney. And if there was one point Sweeney kept circling back to, it was this: Boston’s youth movement is no longer a future concept. It’s here.
“Some of the younger players, as we hoped, would push our older players,” Sweeney said. “People will see our roster this afternoon and be excited about the direction of our hockey club. We want to maintain the competitiveness that we built and reestablished last year with our group overall, but we certainly have to have an eye towards improving the overall skill and speed, and the attack mentality that is required to play in different environments throughout the 84-game schedule.”
That young group includes Michael DiPietro, James Hagens, Frederic Brunet, and Matthew Poitras, who will begin the year on Boston’s roster, with Poitras currently on IR. Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov remain part of that mix as well.
Sweeney sounded especially confident in the way those players fit into the bigger picture. Boston, in his view, is not just collecting prospects. It’s building internal competition.
“Michael's been biding his time in the American Hockey League," Sweeney said Monday. "He easily could have been picked up last year waiver-wise, and we're fortunate that he wasn't, and now he's part of our group. He’s competitive, humble, appreciative of opportunity, but to he's not going to back off.”
He expanded that thought to the rest of the young core.
“The other young guys," Sweeney continued. "Whether James or Freddie, and I talk about Matty Poitras, Fraser's still young, Khusnutdinov is still young - we're excited about that band of players. They're mixing with our even more established guys to the internal growth that they're going to be capable of and pushing.”
Poitras is still working his way back, and Sweeney said there is no timetable for his return. The winger has only recently gotten back on the ice.
When he does come back, Boston will need to make another roster decision. The Bruins would sit at 24 skaters at that point, which would likely mean waiving a defenseman to get to the more familiar 14-7-2 setup teams usually carry through a season.
Depth, in general, was another point Sweeney stressed over and over. Across an 84-game schedule, the Bruins are banking on having enough players ready to answer the call.
“We're not going to apologize for the depth of our hockey club."
Sweeney also made it clear that Alex Steeves remains a player Boston values heavily.
"It's a competitive industry," Sweeney said. "You have to maintain that roster spot in the case of both players [Steeves and Henri Jokiharju ]. We had younger guys that, in a shortened camp environment, we're excited to see and see how that translates.
"In case of Alex, he went through [waivers]," Sweeney continued. "He's an absolute true professional.
He actually had a similar camp last year and got off to a slow start, and he basically said, 'I'll be back.' And, he had a breakout, 30 games that really showed his value to our hockey club.
Alex will be perfectly fine to hit the reset button. He'll make an impact.
We believe that the depth of our club is going to be important through the course of an 84-game schedule.”
By the end of the day, the Bruins’ front office wasn’t hiding its confidence. The message was simple: this team thinks it’s better than last season, deeper and more talented overall. Now comes the part where it has to show it on the ice.
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