The injuries to the Bruins back end have opened up opportunities for a number of young B’s defensemen this season, and there may be another one getting a chance on a West Coast trip starting tonight. The Bruins called up 2015 first round pick Jakub Zboril prior to leaving for Colorado where they’ll take on the Avalanche on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center.
Needless to say the 21-year-old is excited about his first chance to play in NHL games after watching Jeremy Lauzon and Urho Vaakanainen make their league debuts this season, and watching fellow young D-men Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo make their marks over the last few years.
“My game has felt pretty good. It didn’t start out really well this season. The coaches weren’t happy, I wasn’t happy and they sat me down for a game to clear my head,” said Zboril, who has two goals and four points along with a minus-4 rating in 13 games with the P-Bruins this season. “I started playing a bit of a different game with more pace and more urgency, and I started picking up my game.
“This is going to be the first time for me being on an 8-day trip with the Bruins organization. It feels incredible being here, being part of this organization and finally getting called up. I came today and the guys started making fun of me that it feels like one guy from Providence comes up and another one leaves.”
It remains to be seen if there will be an injury that allows him to get into the lineup, but perhaps they may need his offense, skating and puck-moving ability against one of the opponents they’ll face on the road swing.
“He moves the puck well and he’s like a lot of young guys where he’s had some good games and some games where he needs to be better,” said Bruce Cassidy of Zboril, who had four goals and 19 points in 68 games as an AHL rookie last season. “We brought him up because [Brandon] Carlo is going to miss at least Wednesday and on the trip we want to be covered in case there’s a sickness or injury. He’ll travel with us. He’s the seventh [defensemen] right now. That could change, but that’s the [current] plan.”
It would be in Boston’s best interest if Zboril could really make a good showing at the NHL level both to boost his profile as a future asset for the Bruins, or as a possible trade chip when the B’s start looking for forward help. Zboril has watched as fellow 2015 first round picks like Noah Hanifin, Zach Werenski and Ivan Provorov have made names for themselves, and Jake DeBrusk has been the only one of the three consecutive B’s mid-first round picks that’s established themselves at the NHL level.
Boston Bruins
Getting called up to the NHL is the first step toward becoming a regular NHL player, and that’s still within the grasp of a talented young player like Zboril if he can harness the raw talent and begin to show what made the B’s select 13th overall three years ago.
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