The Philadelphia Flyers are reaching into the depth chart for help, and the name they turned to on Monday carries a familiar feel for Boston fans: Jack Studnicka.
Once viewed as a possible long-term answer at center for the Bruins, Studnicka is now getting another NHL opportunity with a Flyers team that has stumbled badly out of the gate. Philadelphia is 0-5-2 after back-to-back weekend losses to the Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes, and the organization made the move to recall Studnicka from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms as injuries and frustration start to pile up.
Studnicka’s path has been a winding one since Boston took him in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft out of the Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League. At one point, he was projected as the kind of center the Bruins could eventually plug in when Patrice Bergeron retired.
That never materialized. He appeared in just 38 regular-season games for Boston under Bruce Cassidy and Jim Montgomery, then played one game in the 2022-23 season before general manager Don Sweeney sent him to the Vancouver Canucks in October 2022.
That deal brought goalie Michael DiPietro and defenseman Jonathan Myrenberg back to Boston, and the Bruins have been well ahead on the trade ever since. DiPietro is backing up Jeremy Swayman this season after a strong year with the Providence Bruins in the AHL.
Studnicka’s career since leaving Boston has been a series of stops. He spent two seasons in Vancouver, including 52 games with the Canucks, then played for the San Jose Sharks in 2023-24. Last season he signed with the Florida Panthers as a free agent and got into 19 games for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, but his role was limited to 7:06 per night and he finished with a minus-6 rating.
Overall, the 27-year-old Windsor, Ontario, native has 126 NHL games on his résumé with six goals and 10 assists, along with a minus-36 rating while averaging under 11 minutes per game. This season, he has a goal and three points in three games for the Phantoms.
For Studnicka, this may be the last real crack at carving out a longer NHL stay. He’ll get the next chance on Tuesday night, when the Flyers host the Seattle Kraken in search of their first win of the season.
In Other News...
Bruins Just Got A Big Blue Line Question On This Road Trip
Charlie McAvoy is poised to rejoin the Bruins for the opening game of their four-game West Coast trip against the San Jose Sharks, giving Boston a familiar anchor back on the blue line at a time when the schedule is about to tighten up. It is the kind of return that can settle a defense group quickly, especially on the road, where matchups and pairings tend to matter even more.
The question now is which defenseman will skate next to him when the Bruins set their lineup for San Jose. Mason Lohrei, Jonathan Aspirot and Frederic Brunet are all in the mix, and the choice says plenty about how Boston wants to balance puck movement, size and reliability as the trip begins. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Push Comes With One Offensive Pressure Point
The Bruins are trying to carry some of last seasons late push into a new year, and one of the quieter themes coming out of camp is where the offense has to come from beyond the forward lines. Boston got itself into the Stanley Cup Playoffs under Marco Sturm despite a sluggish start, and the coach has been clear that the next step is building a more dangerous attack from the blue line. It is not just about puck movement or clean exits, but about defensemen making themselves part of the scoring answer more often.
Mason Lohrei has given that idea a timely boost. The young defenseman has come through with important goals in each of the last two games, helping the Bruins in wins and giving Sturm a useful example of the kind of contribution he wants to see more consistently. Whether that becomes a real trend will matter for a Boston team that is still trying to define how much offense it can expect from its back end. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Blue Line Suddenly Has A Tough McAvoy Decision
Charlie McAvoy is back for the Bruins after serving a six-game suspension, and his return comes at the start of a tough California road trip that immediately asks coach Marco Sturm to reshuffle his blue line. The first practice look had Hampus Lindholm beside McAvoy on the top pairing, with Nikita Zadorov and Will Borgen together and rookie Frederic Brunet alongside Mason Lohrei, giving Boston a new defensive alignment to sort through on the fly.
The most notable ripple from that change is the fate of Connor Clifton, who appears headed for a scratch despite leading the Bruins in ice time in the previous game. For a team trying to steady itself on the road, that is a real decision point, because McAvoys return restores a top-end presence while also forcing Boston to decide which defenseman gets squeezed out of the rotation. [Read more 🡒]