Boston Bruins Prospects: Inside the Bruins Roster Pipeline | Ep. 149

0:00 Speaker 1: Thanks so much. I'm really happy to be here. As you know, this is one of my favorite times of the year.

0:04 Speaker 2: I know, I know well Maria and I we get deep in the weeds with the team as it exists in Boston in the day to day, especially all the regulars, and I know for myself.

0:17 Speaker 1: I do not pay nearly.

0:20 Speaker 2: Enough attention to these young up and comers, not just because there's always so much going on in Boston, but a lot of the young people in the last couple of seasons really not that they haven't been good, but we haven't had so many draft picks. And I feel like there was a lot of buzz this summer around development Camp because we've clearly had a lack of young talent waiting in the wings.

0:43 Speaker 1: And you got a front row seat. I sure did. Boy, it was a fun week, so I can't wait to share everything about it. Some of the guys that really impressed me, some of the fun things we saw.

0:54 Speaker 3: This of all years, with what the Bruins are doing right now, which is basically a rebuild, and now is the time that we do need to focus more on that because clearly the Bruins are moving in an alternative direction. I'm not quite sure that they have made a determination yet what that direction is, but that's a story for a different podcast. But at some point in time, it is necessary to focus on your young players because they are going to be a part of the future of the team. So you know, we need to know what that is going to potentially look like and who is going to be at the forefront of that new player development.

1:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

1:43 Speaker 2: I think hopefully at the end of our conversation today, maybe we will get a sense of how long is it going to potentially take to see some of this draft effort actually come to fruition because with the exception of maybe the first and second overall pick, and obviously depending on the team, most NHL teams don't actually get to use their first round pick right away. It's not a super common things. Why don't we start out first, Marybeth, give us the rundown? What is development camp? Who's invited?

2:21 Speaker 2: All I know.

2:22 Speaker 1: Is it can be us.

2:25 Speaker 2: Not all the draft picks, but certainly some of the team's top draft picks get invited immediately. There are other random guys.

2:32 Speaker 1: Give us the rundown. Sure, development camp is essentially a summer program held by all of the NHL teams. It's they're newly drafted and they're signed prospects, but they also have some space and they invite some other players. So there's some that are there just by invitation, and it's usually somebody that the team wants to have an eye on. Most of the guys that we had invited had a connection from a college or something, so you could see, oh, okay, they were at school with such and such. That's probably how they got noticed by our scouting staff.

3:07 Speaker 1: So at development camp, the team gets to know the players, but the players also get to know the team, the culture, the training methods, and the coaching staff. The focus is on their skills, nutrition, training, sports psychology, and essentially the staff helps them to map out what their development plan is. So it's basically hockey school, but on steroids.

3:31 Speaker 2: So can somebody be at let's say a Bruins camp dev camp this year and next year at another team's camp.

3:40 Speaker 1: The people who are invited, they're usually draft picks and signed prospects. So in that case, when we look at James Hagen's right, well, we drafted him, he's not going to show up at the Avalanche next year because we've signed him, but we have a couple of other invites who if we are not inviting them, they could be invited by another team, for sure, because it's it's the draft picks the prospects, but it's also undrafted free agents, so they can do what they want now. I don't know exactly how the invitation process works behind the scenes, sure, but I am guessing that these are people who have been in conversation with the Bruins, the scouts or somebody from the staff.

4:19 Speaker 1: They've been having a little bit of back and forth and that's how they're Okay, why don't you come to camp and she knows what you have. Now. It could be after a camp the staff is like, we don't feel like you're a fit, or the prospect themselves could be like, you know what, I've gotten to know you and you're not feeling like a great fit for me. So I think that they could show up at somebody else's camp. More often they're showing up at our camp for a year or two couple of years. They can start coming to camp usually around age eighteen, and then it's usually twenty to twenty one year old.

4:50 Speaker 1: Although there are certainly a few guys who are older, but not by much because there's still they might still be playing college. They might still be you know, they haven't entered the AHL, they haven't signed the or entry levels sometimes, so some of these players, we're still seeing it development camp. One of the things that's interesting is it is a development camp when we're seeing these players, they're learning stuff, they're being coached. One of the things you're watching is, hey, I saw this player do this.

5:17 Speaker 1: I saw a coach talk to them. Am I seeing it? So that's part of what you're looking for over the week from these guys. Am I seeing a difference from day one? They want to Yeah, seeing exact same mistakes for four days. Knowing some of the stuff we're watching, some of the drills they're doing, some of the scrimmages. They might be working on something specific. I said, Hey, I really want you to be more on your outside edge, or I really want you to be leaning in this way, or I really want you to head forward this way.

5:47 Speaker 1: So they might be working on a specific skill. That means you're not actually seeing them playing and as they would say in a game. So that's one of the things my mind that this is hockey school.

5:58 Speaker 2: That's really fascinating because it's all kind of coming together to me for me now in my head about what this really is. And it's quite literally it's camp, right, just like what you would imagine, like you go to camp in the summertime, right. And for whatever reason, I've always considered the use of the word camp in the NHL to mean it's not really camp, it's just warming up, right. But I'm starting to recognize some even some of the things that the coaching staff is having the players do. If anybody's listening has a kid in in mites or younger, I mean, that's cross ice, that's exactly how you do scrimmaging.

6:36 Speaker 2: And so it's really fascinating to me now to kind of look at this and think, Wow, it's not just warm up slash tryouts basically, right, because I think that's also what I was thinking, was like, oh, this is a tryouts kind of thing. No, it's quite literally, let's see where you're at, where you're at, Let's teach you some things, and then we teach you some strategies. Are you trying to pick it up? And then I would imagine those players go off, you know, the NCAA they go to my mits juniors and they watch them and see, like, are you applying the things that we've suggested and kind of going from there.

7:13 Speaker 1: One of the things I think that's helpful for people to know is how do they get here? What gets them to the point of being ready to be invited to a development camp. And there's a couple of different paths they can take. In Canada, you start out with minor hockey, so that the mites, et cetera, whatever they're calling it, but it's starting with U seven programs. Then they move on to junior hockey, and there's actually a couple of different ways you can do that. So there's the CHL, the Canadian Hockey League, and that has what people here of as the Major Juniors.

7:43 Speaker 1: Okay, so if you're hearing the Major Juniors, it is the Western Hockey League, the WHL, which is basically Western Canada, the OHL, which is the Ontario Hockey League, and that's Middle Canada and the US. Then there is the q MJHL May Junior Hockey League, which is the Atlantic cana region, and the Eastern US basically Eastern Canada and the US. So that is the CHL. Now that is actually semi professional, so they draft into that NC Double A obviously another path for the Canadians, but there also are some other junior leagues, Junior A and Junior B. Those are non professional, so they're part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League and that was like Cale McCart did that because he wanted to protect his NC Double A eligibility.

8:32 Speaker 1: Now in the US, there's minor hockey just like in Canada, you know, starting with sevens. Then depending on where you are in the US, you might take the route for high school or you might do triple A. Yes, because we do have Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin, a lot of great high school programs that can develop players, so that might be a place that you're doing it. There's also then the NTDP that's the National Team Development Program, so that's where Austin Matthews came. Their focus is on international competition, so that's when you're seeing these kids like winning World Juniors.

9:08 Speaker 1: Well they're coming from other teams, but it's that development team that's going out there playing a lot of those games. Then there is the UA USHL, so this is more similar to what you're seeing for the junior the major juniors they maintain their amateur status. Their focus is to prep kids for the NCAA and the NHL, and that's ages sixteen to twenty that you're playing USHL. So this is so really these are all the places that everyone's developing up through and then we meet them this past week in development camp.

9:41 Speaker 3: Fascinating.

9:42 Speaker 2: I appreciate this because I think probably like a lot of our listeners, we've heard of these different levels in leagues. So it's just fascinating to understand all the multiple layers of that.

9:52 Speaker 3: But so Mary Bell, these player development camps are happening across the league. Are they happening simultaneously to each other more or less?

10:04 Speaker 1: But there's not a requirement that they are. I think that this is my personal theory that nobody has actually confirmed this. I think that most of the teams have it right after the draft so everybody can then take time off. Yeah, it's summer.

10:19 Speaker 3: You know. The league is jamming all of these key events in very close to each other. You know, we have the draft, we have the development camp, and then it coincides with free agency, where some have said that the NHL should maybe take a page out of the NFL playbook, where the NFL is always giving you a reason to talk about them, no matter what time of the year it is. So now we're going to go from all of this happening to now having this pretty big map with not a lot that's going to go on because everyone's exhausted, right and they're taking time off.

11:00 Speaker 3: So I'm not sure that that's great for NHL business. For the people who work in hockey, whether it's for the teams or for those of us who cover it, they need a break.

11:08 Speaker 1: So I think that there's something with that. But part of the reason it's all jammed is because the season started going so long. Yeah, like we have to finish, we have to add the next piece of it. So I'm not sure what the answer is exactly. So Marrabith, let's get back down to business.

11:25 Speaker 3: I want to know from you, Marybeth, player or players in particular that stood out to you as is it plausible to think that perhaps we might see them at a professional level, either Providence Bruins, the Boston Bruins. Did anyone seem like a diamond in the.

11:47 Speaker 1: Rough to you? Will Zeller's I just every time he was on the ice, my eyes were drawn to him. I really I enjoyed watching him so much. He was ushl forward of the year and this yeraries heading to North Dakota.

12:01 Speaker 2: Totally he's off the table because as a reminder to our our listeners, if you're committed Ncuba, you quite literally are not allowed to come to rookie camp.

12:12 Speaker 1: Also really excited about Willmore. Now he's going to be a BC and he was the one who came late because he was he was the one who barely made it to camp. He was traveling with Hagan's with Hagens, Yes that's right, took them or the past for the first day They're like, no, no, we're getting on the ice. Oh yeah yeah. So he was on the national development team last year, he's heading to BC this year. Plays with so much intensity. He really is super intense, a huge competitor, really solid skills, Like he really is a great player.

12:45 Speaker 1: He did seem really coachable though, like he would you'd watch him do something, a coach would talk to him and he'd see a change. So really, like the what I'm hoping for him is that he finds some fun because I don't know that he had any fun this week. Oh out now again, I'm that fun. I think he was just so intense and so so focused. Yeah, but have some fun, friend, it's gay.

13:07 Speaker 2: Well that and that comes with age and experience. You know, when you are the young, when you're the young person in the office, you feel like you got to put in all the extra hours and do all that. But by the time you know her thirty five forty years old, you're.

13:20 Speaker 1: Like, did you try that hard? And that's where I'm sort of hopeing he'll have a little bit more fun. Yeah. Now, another one who really struck out for me was Blenar. He was the he was the one that nobody could find information on. I'm right, Richard's now it's Blenar, and I may or may not be saying it correctly. Turns out he was born in Dale, So of course I love that since I just.

13:42 Speaker 3: Is this that mystery? Check?

13:45 Speaker 1: Mary?

13:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, so so can you click can you clarify the story?

13:49 Speaker 1: Because I am super confused? What is the deal? So he was actually born here in the States. He was born in Dale. His dad had been a ski instructor in Aspen and uh something, so they when he was young overseas, so he has been over there. He was actually that's how the connection all happened here. But he's been playing for a what's essentially a major juniors in Sweden, for their U twenty professional team. Okay, so that's why people I mean. And his last name had been Richards. He was not allowed to change it until he was eighteen, so he went back to, like, I think, a more traditional family name.

14:25 Speaker 1: I think maybe this part wasn't totally clear on, but I believe his family might have changed the name when they came to the States. It's just something more traditional in the family, or may have been his mother's family name. Got it.

14:37 Speaker 2: And so he played for the league that like Pasta played in, right, Yeah.

14:41 Speaker 1: Well his plays that for the U twenty Swedish He was to me the unexpected surprise. Oh he just he has a great shot, smooth skating, really good put handling, really quick, just a great player. Obviously, I'm saying all this, all these wonderful things about these guys. They're all still developing, so they're not NHL skating, he's not NHL put handling yet. But these are players that I'm really seeing some amazing stuff from. So I'm loving these I know a lot of people are really interested in Dean Laturno.

15:14 Speaker 1: I was going to ask about him.

15:16 Speaker 3: He hadn't been so much spoken about him during his tenure at BC and his lack of development there, which I think all his issue bad luck.

15:29 Speaker 1: Suple things that have come up about him as of late. One of the things was it turns out he broke his hand had surgery around Christmas, so that kind of screwed up his season a little bit there.

15:40 Speaker 3: Now.

15:41 Speaker 1: The other thing was, so he was our number one draft pick last year in twenty twenty four. You might remember last year when I was talking about Camp, I'm like, he didn't really stand out for me Camp, extcept for his size. Yeah, a big freaking high We have a ton of them. Now, there was a lot of he did not tiewise. We have a lot of really big guys.

16:01 Speaker 2: Yeah.

16:01 Speaker 1: It was really interesting. But I will tell you this year I did see more physicality from him, So I liked that. One of the things. A lot of people were talking about his skating, and so I kind of wanted to go in with fresh eyes and not listen to what other people had said. Yeah, he's not a very strong skater. He may have left the ECHL a little too quickly, and come up to Nyuaa before he was quite ready. The reason that happened was somebody left BC and a space opened up for him, so he came up. But he was supposed to have another year in our plan of major juniors, and so he may have come up a little too soon.

16:38 Speaker 3: He came to a team that was like stacked and yeah, you know number one and you talk about a big fish that now he's a little fish in this ginormous hand. So you know, maybe the organization was not as savvy as they should have been with the development of this player. But the fact you say he's not an impressive skater, he's gotten better. There's definitely some improvement.

17:06 Speaker 1: But but I did go in and really because of what I was hearing, I thought, let me take a closer look and like, yeah, you know, and again, I like everybody, and I'm always giving the benefit of doubt.

17:16 Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we love that about you, Mary ben I, which is why I'm like standing up and taking notice with the technique of the skating ability, which is a little bit troublesome.

17:31 Speaker 2: But you know, it's not just about your skating development, your your hockey IQ development. It's also your human brain development to be able to manage and handle and be in the pressure pot that is ahl NHL. So I'm optimistic. I'm hopeful he has a better season at BC this year.

17:52 Speaker 1: But again just remember they are also in school. When you're looking at kids juniors, their job is hockey. Yeah, but I want to talk about lo Keohans. Then he was playing with major juniors and the QMJHL. But he signed his ELC November of twenty twenty four. Yes, so for an ELC, depending on how old you are when you sign it, it can be a two year contract or it could be three years. Connor Badard because he was only eighteen and he signed his was a three year so basically just burned a year. Yes, because he signed his ELC, we will likely see him this year in either Providence or me.

18:29 Speaker 1: Saw some really good things from him. He had a really solid camp. He was a rookie kid. Welesyard and we should see him at rookie camp this year. Says he's not in c double a particularly compared to last year. I'm seeing some good things from him. He seems to have improved his skills, but he's also filled out and he seems to have more control over his body. One of the themes for me this week is all of these young men who have grown very quickly for all arms of eggs and know what to do with him.

18:58 Speaker 2: I'm all the more and again I am such a huge proponent of NC double a pathway being the fact that you get to grow into your body. These these guys are just they don't stop growing still. They're like in they're early twenty, they're still growing.

19:17 Speaker 1: So that brings me actually to Christian Kostadinski. We drafted him in twenty twenty three. He's kind of playing with the USHL, but he's heading to b C in the fall. He was at camp last year and I don't really remember much about him, but he is massive, really like six' five or bigger and about two twenty what's his? Position uh so he is actually defense but he seems to be growing into himself a little, bit but he is one who he's STILL i just felt like he was still figuring out how to use his body and how to control.

19:50 Speaker 1: Himself there was TIMES i just thought it was super awkward with the way he was. Moving and AGAIN i think it's him growing into. HIMSELF i think he needs to fill out a, little because, again these guys are all arms and all. LEGS i didn't know much about him coming, in even though he's been. Around but speaking of not strong, skaters apparently like two three years, ago he could not. Skate what right on the street is he.

20:12 Speaker 2: Was wa wait wait wait couldn't skate per that particular level or, like was really a genuinely terrible.

20:21 Speaker 1: SKATER i believe that he was generally a terrible skater from What oh my, god oh what people are telling, me BUT i have no reason to doubt my.

20:29 Speaker 3: Sources holy, mo, Wow so that's super, impressive then you Gotta i'm looking.

20:35 Speaker 1: At him And i'm going. Huh but he really is a total physical player and doesn't seem to have any quit from WHAT i saw over the four. Days my question just popped into my.

20:45 Speaker 3: Head and maybe it's a crazy, question but these players are all invited in the campus for four. Days does every player stay the entirety of the duration or are there any instances that you've encounted where it's day one day? Too and obviously there have got to be assessors on the ice to, say you know what this was? Like this might not have been a good idea to invite to have this individual.

21:11 Speaker 1: FEAR i haven't seen any evidence of, that AND i haven't heard anything like that.

21:15 Speaker 2: Happening we know that our pipeline has been absolutely.

21:21 Speaker 1: Terrible or as you, Said Maria, abysmo.

21:24 Speaker 2: How do you feel about the future For boston and if you could make a guess soon could we start to see some of those positive things that you sought this dev.

21:38 Speaker 1: Camp let's be, honest two, years three, years what your. Take i'm hoping that most of these players finish out their development at THE ncaa or juniors level as long as they. CAN i don't think there had anything to gain by rushing and jumping into THE ahl and THE. NHL i just don't based on, THAT i am guessing seeing the next three to four.

22:01 Speaker 2: Years, listeners if you're in The boston area or near any of these colleges that these players are, at go to the games. Frequently they are very inexpensive and to watch Either Hockey east or if you like to go To harvard and see some of them THAT'S, ecac but they're all really affordable to go see those. Games definitely go check these guys. Out good us, know for families, too you, know, yeah it's a great. Atmosphere go check them. Out tell us what you think during the. Season we don't want to forget about some of these players because now we are super invested in paying.

22:40 Speaker 2: Attention find us all on our. Socials and thank you, Again Maria. Mariba i'm actually excited about these young, guys but as, always thanks for listening and go be's go be