Preparatory matches obviously do not make a career. But isn’t it ironic that as Patrice Bergeron retires, another right-handed center freshly drafted in the second round (also), Matthew Poitras, is having a sensational training camp in Boston and might even filling a significant void at center at just 19 years old, as Bergeron had done 20 years earlier after the departure of Jozef Stumpel?
This statement could obviously age very badly. Poitras has yet to play a regular game in the NHL. And if he is not cut by the opening of the season, he could also take part in certain matches before being sent back to the junior ranks.
But when captain Brad Marchand, his line partner in preparatory matches, compares this boy to Mitch Marner, we have to start taking an interest in this phenomenon in Boston.
Milan Lucic, another shrewd Bruins second-round pick in 2006, entered the conversation this week. “It reminds me so much of when I was 19,” he told reporters in Boston. They didn’t tell me anything, but they continually placed me in training, and that’s a very good sign at this age, so we have to highlight his efforts so far. We are two completely different players. For my part, I continued to play robustly to prove that I had my place with these men. »
Poitras isn’t the biggest at 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds. But he has well-above-average vision and creativity, hence his 73 assists on 95 points in 63 games in Guelph in the Ontario Junior League, up 45 points from his junior year. eligibility the previous season.
In four preseason games, Poitras had two goals and two assists, won 53% of his faceoffs and played an average of more than 16 minutes per game.
Canadian fans never digested the 2003 draft. Montreal opted for Andrei Kostitsyn at number ten, a player with extraordinary individual skills, but at risk due to his epilepsy problems and the Russian factor.
The Bruins didn’t hit a home run in the first round when they drafted defenseman Mark Stuart 21st overall. Stuart enjoyed a career spanning over 600 games in the NHL, albeit in a supporting role.
Things got worse in the second round for the Canadian. Corey Urquhart took advantage of the visit of André Savard, just relegated to the position of assistant to new general manager Bob Gainey, at the Verdun auditorium that spring to have a phenomenal playoff series with 15 points, including 9 goals , in just 7 games. Bergeron also had a good series offensively, with as many points as Urquhart, but in four more games. However, you had to have spotted Bergeron earlier in the season to discover all the beautiful subtleties in his game, which the Bruins did.
Urquhart was drafted 40th overall by Montreal, Bergeron five picks later by Boston. The first did not play a single game in the NHL, and played barely 78 games in the American League. The hall of fame awaits the second after a career of 1,040 points in 1,294 games, six Selke Trophies awarded to the most outstanding defensive forward, a Stanley Cup, two Olympic gold medals and a World Junior Championship gold medal. …
It would obviously be premature and clumsy to draw any parallel between 2003 and 2022. The Canadiens’ vice-president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, was also the assistant general manager of the Bruins when they drafted Bergeron, and the general manager of the CH, Kent Hughes, his agent. Even Montreal’s co-director of recruiting, Nick Bobrov, worked for the Bruins at the time!
Poitras is showing some nice flashes and the team’s veterans were bold to compliment him so eloquently, but the kid still hasn’t played a game in the regular season.
We will have to wait a few more years to revisit this 2022 draft. The Canadian had two choices in each of the first and second rounds. He drafted Juraj Slafkovsky first overall, Filip Mesar at 26th, Owen Beck early in the second round at 33rd, before seeing Boston speak for the first time at 54th, nine spots ahead of gifted young defender Lane Hutson drafted by Montreal with their second pick in the second round.
Slafkovsky will become a quality winger. 6-foot-3, 230-pound forwards who can skate like the wind and score aren’t found on every corner. Owen Beck seems to have what it takes to become a regular center in the NHL. Maybe not a star, but a solid player. If Lane Hutson produces in the professional ranks like he does in the NCAA, he will become a star. That leaves Mesar, who is struggling so far.
Despite a 65-point season at just 21 years old, Trevor Zegras signed a bridge contract for just three seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, paying $5.7 million per year. Other players of his vintage, Jack Hughes, Dylan Cozens, Matt Boldy and Cole Caufield have already signed long-term contracts for more than seven million per year. Even Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook signed for one more year in Montreal, but at a lower annual salary.
But despite good offensive production, we hope for better defensive commitment from the young man. Less fuss, more efficiency. In his first practice with the Ducks, Zegras got a private lesson from new coach Greg Cronin. “He started [the session] by throwing my stick into the corner of the rink. I found the idea interesting, Zegras told NHL.com. General manager Pat Verbeek emphasized the importance of improving my defensive game when signing the contract. »
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2- Guillaume Lefrançois explains the nature of closed pensions during training camps and Martin St-Louis rehashes in this article old memories of the visits of the Hartford Whalers and the New York Rangers to Burlington while he played for the University of Vermont.
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