Bruins Development Camp Highlights: Letourneau, Zellers & Top Prospects | Ep. 150
Liner notes
🎙️Season 4 of Bruins Tape to Tape kicks off with our annual Boston Bruins Development Camp breakdown! Prospects expert Maribeth joins us to discuss standout Bruins prospects including Dean Letourneau, Will Zellers, Loke Johansson, Kristian Kostadinski, Yuri Ivanov, and Max Lundgren. We explain how Development Camp works, why patience is key for evaluating young players, and how NCAA rule changes could reshape hockey’s future. If you want the latest on the Bruins roster and prospects, this episode is your full update.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bruins-tape-to-tape-a-boston-bruins-hockey-podcast--6575298/support.
✨Join the Patreon for Ad Free Listening✨Get Our Merch ✨
📲 Follow us on X, Instagram & Blue Sky ➡️ @TapetoTapeMK
📲 Join our Discord ➡️ https://discord.gg/AQfC73RbnS
📧 Get Snap Shots in Your Inbox ➡️ tapetotapemk.substack.com
🛍️ Shop with us ➡️ We are an NHL Shop affiliate! Support the pod by using this link to get all your Bruins gear.
Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 1: I need something to do.
Speaker 3: All Jack, send it out. A triple block of this
Speaker 3: says today, here's a chance popor right down the goalie scars,
Speaker 3: oh my one a move by the rookie too on
Speaker 3: one plaster not moving in set it to its time
Speaker 3: on the oil dances in podcast at home right away corner,
Speaker 3: paster Chester.
Speaker 4: What is that for?
Speaker 5: Most? Welcome in everyone to another episode of Ruins Tape
Speaker 5: to tape and in fact, welcome into our fourth season premiere.
Speaker 5: I'm your host today, Caroline with a K, and I'm
Speaker 5: joined with my fantastic co host Maria from Watertown. Hey, Maria,
Speaker 5: how's it going.
Speaker 1: It's gone great.
Speaker 2: I can't believe we're four years into this gig with
Speaker 2: each other. It's thrawn by in a good way.
Speaker 1: It has.
Speaker 5: It's been an interesting four years, or at least three
Speaker 5: full seasons. To kick off this season, we are bringing
Speaker 5: in our favorite doctor of Dev's, our prospects expert Mary Beth,
Speaker 5: to talk about dev Camp.
Speaker 1: So welcome in, Mary Beth.
Speaker 4: Hey, thanks so much for having me and congrats on
Speaker 4: four years. Happy to have been part of it for
Speaker 4: most of it. I appreciate you guys, having me back
Speaker 4: as you know this to me is one of the
Speaker 4: most wonderful times of the year.
Speaker 5: It fills us all with hope and the promise of
Speaker 5: what could be in the future for the Boston Bruins.
Speaker 5: There's a saying in gardening, if you'll indulge me, that
Speaker 5: there's no perfect garden like next year garden. And I
Speaker 5: feel like there's no perfect team like next year's future team,
Speaker 5: and so I often feel that way when I'm watching
Speaker 5: some of these young kids and hearing about them throughout
Speaker 5: the season from you.
Speaker 1: You do such a great job of keeping track of
Speaker 1: all of these.
Speaker 5: Young players, and we're excited to hear about some that
Speaker 5: have been in the system for a little while. Now
Speaker 5: you're gonna tell us a little bit about Dean laterno
Speaker 5: Will Zellers, Loki Johansen, Christian Kostadinsky, and then, of course
Speaker 5: our two newer players on our prospects roster goaltenders Yuri
Speaker 5: Ivanov and Max Lundgren. But before we dive in, let's
Speaker 5: do a little bit of a refresher in case we've
Speaker 5: got some new fans or folks who just don't pay
Speaker 5: this close attention in the summertime.
Speaker 1: What is Development Camp and why does it matter?
Speaker 4: Development Camp is a summer program. It's held by all
Speaker 4: of the NHL teams and it's their newly drafted and
Speaker 4: their signed prospects.
Speaker 1: There are some.
Speaker 4: Invites that come as well. They might invite people that
Speaker 4: they're interested in. I've noticed a lot of times that
Speaker 4: the invites are playing with somebody who's already in our pipeline,
Speaker 4: So that's generally how that again there, so it's people
Speaker 4: that we might be keeping an eye on, maybe some
Speaker 4: undrafted free agents that we want to check out. The
Speaker 4: players are usually between eighteen and twenty or twenty one.
Speaker 4: Some of them can be a little older depending on
Speaker 4: where they are and their development. But the teams get
Speaker 4: to know the players. The players get to know the
Speaker 4: team culture, the training methods, the coaching staff. They focus
Speaker 4: on skills, nutrition, training, and sports psychology, and then they
Speaker 4: help the players to come up with the development plan
Speaker 4: for the next year. I think we last year. We're
Speaker 4: talking about it like hockey school, and that's really what
Speaker 4: it is for these guys is they're just coming in
Speaker 4: getting a taste of this, but also coming up with
Speaker 4: a game plan moving forward.
Speaker 2: And Mary bet this was a question thank you came
Speaker 2: up last week while some of us were there physically.
Speaker 2: But are there typically any scouts? I think this is
Speaker 2: a question that fans would want to know the answer to.
Speaker 1: No, usually, I think now.
Speaker 4: I do think that there may be some people keeping
Speaker 4: an eye on the notes that come out, the video
Speaker 4: that comes out, But people aren't going to other teams'
Speaker 4: development camps. But there was one player in here who
Speaker 4: this is like his third development camp. It was at
Speaker 4: the Krack and he was at Vegas. So you do
Speaker 4: see them going to different camps if they haven't signed
Speaker 4: into a system or committed to a system. But it's
Speaker 4: not because they're somebody has been in there scouting them.
Speaker 4: In the seats now, Bruins Brass is often there, but
Speaker 4: they sit way up and not anywhere near us.
Speaker 1: Peasants freezing out gas is off exactly. My god, was
Speaker 1: that rink cold.
Speaker 5: It was good on a hot week though, So it's
Speaker 5: a really great opportunity. The vast majority of the players
Speaker 5: who are in attendance are players that have been drafted
Speaker 5: by that team.
Speaker 1: And then, like you said, there are a handful of
Speaker 1: players who are invited.
Speaker 5: They are not already signed somewhere or drafted for a
Speaker 5: variety of reasons.
Speaker 1: Their pathway is a little bit different.
Speaker 5: A lot of the invites I noticed this year, for
Speaker 5: the most part, came from the NC DOUBLEA. Then there
Speaker 5: were a couple of invites who were we had a
Speaker 5: WHL invite, but a lot of them came from NC DOUBLEA.
Speaker 5: And of course.
Speaker 1: There are draft picks there who are currently also in
Speaker 1: the NC DOUBLEA.
Speaker 5: But that kind of got us thinking about some of
Speaker 5: these changes that the NCUBA has adopted over the last
Speaker 5: couple of years. Most notably, the biggest change was last
Speaker 5: season in which players who had gone into juniors, which
Speaker 5: is technically professional hockey because they get compensated. Previously had
Speaker 5: never been allowed to then go and play in the
Speaker 5: NCUBA because the NCUBLEA would only take players who still
Speaker 5: maintained amateur status. That changed last year because we saw
Speaker 5: Gavin McKenna be the flagship players so to speak, to
Speaker 5: do this thing where he played juniors and then went
Speaker 5: to Penn State. Another change that's coming down the pike
Speaker 5: that I'm not as familiar with.
Speaker 1: Explain the next phase of.
Speaker 5: The change and maybe how is that going to change
Speaker 5: the landscape of prospects.
Speaker 4: So this change is going to affect prospects who are
Speaker 4: going to enroll in college in fall twenty twenty seven
Speaker 4: or later. We need to talk about it now, though,
Speaker 4: because it changes the way NCUBA eligibility is applied up
Speaker 4: until next year. The waved eligibility worked was you would
Speaker 4: get four years of playing within a five year period.
Speaker 4: There's all sorts of different rules and regulations in there.
Speaker 4: But you hear about somebody read shirting. They might sit
Speaker 4: out a year to protect a year of eligibility. That's
Speaker 4: not how it's working now. For most of the college
Speaker 4: athletes who are coming in right after high school, they
Speaker 4: may actually be able to get another season in or so.
Speaker 4: But this is instead of four seasons within a five
Speaker 4: year clock, it's a five year eligibility window, but it's
Speaker 4: tied to your age and your enrollment. But now the
Speaker 4: NCAA clock begins on the academic year after the nineteenth birthday,
Speaker 4: but depends on when you're born when that clock is starting.
Speaker 4: That's why any of the players in juniors now need
Speaker 4: to be thinking about where's my clock. What I think
Speaker 4: is going to happen with this is I am thinking
Speaker 4: that people are still going to be playing their time
Speaker 4: in juniors and not necessarily cutting that, But as we've
Speaker 4: been seeing more and more is maybe cutting their time
Speaker 4: in the NC Double A, not playing all four years
Speaker 4: there still getting in a few years in juniors. Now
Speaker 4: there may be some who just play a year or
Speaker 4: so in juniors and then get their full four years
Speaker 4: in an NC Double A. We're going to have to
Speaker 4: see how this ends up playing out. There was a
Speaker 4: lot of pushback on this for hockey because hockey development
Speaker 4: is very different than a lot of other sports. Most
Speaker 4: sports don't have this very intricate and important.
Speaker 1: Development window of juniors.
Speaker 5: So does that mean that the clock starts at age
Speaker 5: nineteen regardless if they plan to go to an NC
Speaker 5: DOUBLEA like the max, they will max out in age
Speaker 5: potentially before they max out the number of eligible seasons. Correct.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 5: I get it, because especially at D one hockey schools,
Speaker 5: you have players coming in who are probably going to
Speaker 5: be a little bit older. Again, they could be going
Speaker 5: and playing American years, which is still considered at the
Speaker 5: time you're preserving their amateur status. So they would come
Speaker 5: in and be a twenty two year old freshman, but
Speaker 5: then they would have for years, so they were graduating.
Speaker 5: If they played their full eligibility at twenty six years
Speaker 5: of age, but now it sounds like it's a max
Speaker 5: out at.
Speaker 4: Twenty four depending on when your birthday hits. Interesting, so
Speaker 4: if you turn nineteen in August, it's very different than
Speaker 4: if you turn nineteen in September.
Speaker 1: Kind of like enrolling for school.
Speaker 4: With these kids, kind of there's got to be a
Speaker 4: lot of thought in how they're doing it, So it's
Speaker 4: important just to keep this in mind. Again, we're not
Speaker 4: going to be seeing it until next season, but it
Speaker 4: may affect some of the choices that some of our
Speaker 4: prospects are making based on their development.
Speaker 5: I actually kind of like this idea of this concept
Speaker 5: because I think the biggest criticism and concern around the
Speaker 5: NCAA rule change from last year was you've got kids who.
Speaker 1: Are going to be doing juniors.
Speaker 5: They're going to come in and they're going to obviously
Speaker 5: be really talented because they've played in Canadian juniors, which
Speaker 5: is really high level of hockey, and the number of
Speaker 5: spots available for especially American players, it's going to be
Speaker 5: that much more competitive because you've got this injection of
Speaker 5: potentially significantly more talented players coming into the pool. But
Speaker 5: then this is like the protection piece from the NCAA
Speaker 5: for their American players, because if an American player decides
Speaker 5: to only do one year of West juniors, they might
Speaker 5: be able to get in sooner as opposed to other
Speaker 5: players who are doing Canadian juniors, and it's not uncommon
Speaker 5: for them to make that jump from Canadian juniors to
Speaker 5: the NHL because Canadian Juniors is effectively that prep league
Speaker 5: for the NAA, whereas NC DOUBLEA is the prep league
Speaker 5: for the NHL for a lot of Americans. So I
Speaker 5: like this in this sense that it kind of takes
Speaker 5: back a little bit of that control that it seemed
Speaker 5: to me that the NC DOUBLEA was kind of giving up.
Speaker 1: But we'll see how it works out in practice.
Speaker 4: I think we have to see how the players end
Speaker 4: up using it, how they end up responding to it,
Speaker 4: and I think then we'll know better because I think
Speaker 4: there's an argument made for both sides. I can see
Speaker 4: the more level playing field, but I also see what
Speaker 4: the Canadian junior system does and the.
Speaker 1: Kind of product that we see from that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this whole NC DOUBLEA change has even gone so
Speaker 5: far as to motivate USA Hockey to completely change their
Speaker 5: development pathway for older players. They're creating a new league,
Speaker 5: so to speak of more elite junior level, again still amateur,
Speaker 5: but trying to create another layer to amp up the
Speaker 5: talent and the competitiveness for American players to compete on
Speaker 5: a more level playing field with Canadian junior players who
Speaker 5: are coming in and also trying out for NCAA spots.
Speaker 5: Like it's legitimately enough of a concern for USA Hockey
Speaker 5: and seeing how these rules have changed access for American
Speaker 5: players so very interesting. Love to see good competition among
Speaker 5: young players because you want to see them grow and develop,
Speaker 5: and that is why something like dev camp exists, so
Speaker 5: that way we can track some of these players and
Speaker 5: see how they've changed and see how they take what
Speaker 5: they've learned. I think we'll kick it off with obviously
Speaker 5: the biggest name and our biggest player out there, Dean Laturno.
Speaker 5: He's been there, I believe he's done it three years now.
Speaker 5: This is a third development camp where I've seen him. Actually,
Speaker 5: the first dev Camp I covered was right after his draft.
Speaker 5: I've been watching him for the last obviously during the
Speaker 5: year as well, but for the last three dev camps.
Speaker 1: So my gosh, what difference a year makes.
Speaker 2: I went three days. He looked like a man amongst boys,
Speaker 2: honestly in there. No, but he's got a rocket for
Speaker 2: a shot, and he moves relatively fluidly. I still think
Speaker 2: there's some work he can do on his ease of movement.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if that has anything to do
Speaker 2: with the fact that he's a big boy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's sturdy. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 5: When I think of like Zadanochara being of similar height,
Speaker 5: in my mind, Chara, it was this skinny player, very
Speaker 5: live beanpole of a man that is not Dean Laturno.
Speaker 5: So give us his little background and then some things
Speaker 5: that you've noticed that have changed since he's started with us.
Speaker 4: He is a rising junior at BC, and for anybody
Speaker 4: who's followed his career, they may remember his freshman.
Speaker 1: Year was not full of stars. He was supposed to.
Speaker 4: Have another year of development, and then one of the
Speaker 4: BC players ended up going pro a year earlier than expected.
Speaker 4: A space opened up, so he took it, and he
Speaker 4: had an injury. It turns out that year too. But
Speaker 4: his freshman year not awesome. This past year, completely different
Speaker 4: year at BC. He was second only to James Hagens.
Speaker 4: Really you could see it at camp. So he is faster,
Speaker 4: he's stronger, he's confident, and again this is from watching
Speaker 4: him for the last three years. He is a leader
Speaker 4: on the ice now and you wouldn't have said that
Speaker 4: last year. You wouldn't even have predicted that was where
Speaker 4: it was going. Obviously the Bruins knew that before we did.
Speaker 4: He spit out this year, not just because of his size.
Speaker 4: The first year was like, yep, he's taller than everybody
Speaker 4: and I see him. But other than that he didn't
Speaker 4: stand out. This time he did. He's becoming better at
Speaker 4: creating his chances. There was a play on Wednesday during
Speaker 4: the three on three scrimmages that he made some space,
Speaker 4: he squeezed his way through and he just made this
Speaker 4: nasty goal. It was so much fun were watching that
Speaker 4: and I thought, oh, we wouldn't have seen this from
Speaker 4: him last year. But the kind of stuff that he's
Speaker 4: been picking up, this is the kind of stuff he's
Speaker 4: learning by the minutes he put in, by the time
Speaker 4: he put it, and quite frankly, the hard work he's
Speaker 4: been putting it. Yeah, he's going to be the number
Speaker 4: one guy at BC this year. It would not surprise
Speaker 4: me if he comes up next spring after the BC
Speaker 4: season ends, but because he skipped juniors, I wouldn't hate
Speaker 4: it if he had an extra year of development. So
Speaker 4: I think that decision will be made when they see
Speaker 4: how this year goes for him.
Speaker 1: He was an interesting one for me to watch. I
Speaker 1: was only there for one day.
Speaker 5: I went for the first day where there were a
Speaker 5: lot of drills, which I love to watch that kind
Speaker 5: of stuff. I watched that three days a week during
Speaker 5: the season with ten year olds, So like I'm very
Speaker 5: familiar with all the foundations of hockey and the basic skills.
Speaker 1: That doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: How old you are, if you're eight or eighteen, you're
Speaker 5: all doing quite literally the exact same thing. An interesting
Speaker 5: one to observe because again I think his sheer size
Speaker 5: can sometimes make it a little bit tricky to evaluate
Speaker 5: his skating. I know that the skating was a huge
Speaker 5: issue commented on last year and that it has improved.
Speaker 5: And it's hard to compare him to someone like will Zeller's,
Speaker 5: who will get to because will Zeller's is seven inches
Speaker 5: shorter than him.
Speaker 1: There's just difference in size.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and not just like Hite build and everything, and
Speaker 5: watching him skates, he had decent foundation of skating skills.
Speaker 5: What I thought was really interesting in watching him was
Speaker 5: some of his technical ability. I think he I would
Speaker 5: hope continues to work on and develop. And watching players
Speaker 5: in drills is very different than watching players play in
Speaker 5: the game. Playing in a game can hide all manner
Speaker 5: of sins because there's so much going on, But the
Speaker 5: technical foundation really becomes important and evident in gameplay when
Speaker 5: you have to make a lot of decisions quickly, or
Speaker 5: you have to move and do three things at the
Speaker 5: same time, and when you have that solid technical foundation,
Speaker 5: those are things that you don't even have to think about,
Speaker 5: so you continue to have that mental acuity to then
Speaker 5: finish the shot lift the puck. One of my favorite
Speaker 5: drills that I saw them doing was a kind of
Speaker 5: a passing drill where they went down the boards and
Speaker 5: went back up and passed the puck, and then went
Speaker 5: down again and passed the puck, and they had to
Speaker 5: do it three or four times, and not every guy
Speaker 5: could then lift the puck at the end because they
Speaker 5: were doing like fifty different things motions right, and some
Speaker 5: degree of fatigue, mental fatigue or whatever prevented most of
Speaker 5: them from even being able to lift the puck. At
Speaker 5: the end of it, he still has that potential to
Speaker 5: hone those particular skills. I did like what I saw
Speaker 5: from him. He's got a lot of henchel I love
Speaker 5: the size. I love seeing a player be able to
Speaker 5: utilize that, especially in board battles. I saw him do
Speaker 5: a great job in that regard. So I think he's
Speaker 5: going to be really interesting future ruin hopefully as long
Speaker 5: as he continues the hard work.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 4: Now I agree with you, and I do think one
Speaker 4: of the things we want to keep in mind about
Speaker 4: development camp is as we are seeing they are playing
Speaker 4: against other developing players. Now again, I do think Laturno
Speaker 4: looks great. I'm seeing all this improvement, a lot of
Speaker 4: good stuff happening with him. But what happens is when
Speaker 4: people see someone like Laturno standing out at camp, it's
Speaker 4: their immediate reaction to, hey, let's bring him up where's laturn.
Speaker 5: No, No, he is he is destined for the AHL
Speaker 5: for a little bit.
Speaker 2: Well, and let's point when this comes up again, let's
Speaker 2: point to the fact that we did bring James Hagen
Speaker 2: up here, and he looked like a deer in the
Speaker 2: headlights during really did the ice time that he got
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, and we all know the transition from
Speaker 2: one venue to another and then jumping into the playoffs
Speaker 2: are all vastly different things.
Speaker 1: You know. I think people need to pump the brakes on.
Speaker 2: You know, when we get a shiny new toy, right,
Speaker 2: you want to see that shiny new toy go from
Speaker 2: zero to one thousand all at once. And that's not
Speaker 2: how it works for these younger players. I mean, we
Speaker 2: want to see them grow and develop because they are
Speaker 2: part of the future, right and so you don't want
Speaker 2: to quash that by throwing them into a situation that
Speaker 2: they're not quite ready for yet. We can have conversations
Speaker 2: about the Bruins hesitancy in that regard at the AHL level,
Speaker 2: where hopefully we're seeing a shift in that mindset moving forward,
Speaker 2: but let these guys grow and blossom in the venues
Speaker 2: that they're in right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 4: So I always have a disclaimer when we're talking about
Speaker 4: our prospects and our developing players.
Speaker 2: There's a path to develop. There's a reason why it's
Speaker 2: called development camp.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a great reminder that when you're watching players
Speaker 5: at dev camp. This is a pond that is very small,
Speaker 5: and someone can look like a really big fish there.
Speaker 1: But the pond for AHL level.
Speaker 5: Play and then NHL level play significantly larger.
Speaker 1: So where's so you said Dean is going back to
Speaker 1: being back to the junior year a BC.
Speaker 4: We'll see how that plays out at the end of
Speaker 4: the season, whether we see him come up to the
Speaker 4: Bruins or whether he does another year of BC. I'm
Speaker 4: not going to be grudge a kid if they're close
Speaker 4: to ready who wants to start making some money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough. It's tough to not do that. It's
Speaker 1: tough to say no.
Speaker 5: Will Zellers tell us a little bit about him, what
Speaker 5: number kid was.
Speaker 2: He's got some sick hands and he can molder me.
Speaker 2: And I think I will say this about him. Out
Speaker 2: of all of the players that were out there, he
Speaker 2: seemed to me to be the kid that was having
Speaker 2: the most fun out there all weeks. He just looked
Speaker 2: like he was having a great time. Yes, love to
Speaker 2: see he did last year too. The kid loves to
Speaker 2: play hockey and it just shows he just full of joy,
Speaker 2: just yucking it up with teammates. Or goofing around, and
Speaker 2: this should be part of the component of the week.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, I agreed. And it's a game at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, it's a game. It's a serious game,
Speaker 4: and they're making a career of it. But particularly at
Speaker 4: summer camp.
Speaker 2: Though, I will I will say that there was at
Speaker 2: one of the scrimmages. I think it was the first
Speaker 2: scrimmage we saw that he and Vaughn kind of got
Speaker 2: into it a little bit along the boards and that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there was. I kind of liked, I'm like, WHOA good
Speaker 2: for you guys. One of you is back and down.
Speaker 2: Wasn't anything nasty, dirty or anything like that, but neither
Speaker 2: one was taking any crap from the other in the corner,
Speaker 2: So I thought that was pretty good. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So will Is he's twenty years old. We got him
Speaker 4: last year in a trade with Colorado. He was at camp. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so this is his second camp with us, and I'm
Speaker 4: sure he was a camp in twenty twenty four with
Speaker 4: the Avalanche. He was a third round pick. I loved
Speaker 4: watching him last year because he had fun and he
Speaker 4: was a great pairing with Hagens. This year, he was
Speaker 4: a lot of fun to watch. Actually, in the scrimmages
Speaker 4: with Pelosi. They made a great pairing. He's great with
Speaker 4: the puck on his stick. He is a playmaker, and
Speaker 4: he's a very offensive player. Not offensive offensive, but he
Speaker 4: guts snipe a shot too.
Speaker 5: Yes, he can very high skill player. I really enjoyed
Speaker 5: watching like these little surprises.
Speaker 2: It was fun to watch when he got the puck
Speaker 2: on his he was fun to watch.
Speaker 5: But by no means David Pasternak, I'm not equating him
Speaker 5: in terms of talent. However, one of those kinds of
Speaker 5: players who they hand out little treats of look at
Speaker 5: this little thing I can do. Here's a little treat
Speaker 5: for you, and it's just, oh my god, that was fantastic.
Speaker 1: I loved seeing that.
Speaker 4: Now he is a rising sophomore at North Dakota, so
Speaker 4: he's going to be NCAA for the second year. Had
Speaker 4: a great season last season. He led the stretch at
Speaker 4: the end of the first day, and I always like
Speaker 4: to see that because it shows that it's a sign
Speaker 4: of leadership, but it's also showing a level of trust
Speaker 4: from the coaches. It's anyone who you see leading the
Speaker 4: stretch is given a certain amount of responsibility from the
Speaker 4: coaches and saying, hey, listen, we believe in you.
Speaker 1: Good job, and it's really a sign of respect.
Speaker 2: And you know what, he didn't take any shift off,
Speaker 2: any drill off he went. He went one hundred and
Speaker 2: ten percent no matter what he was asked to do,
Speaker 2: which I think is significant for any in my view.
Speaker 1: He was super smooth.
Speaker 5: They had a puck handling drill where they had to
Speaker 5: do a lot of slalom skating and then also passing
Speaker 5: the puck under these little things I don't know what
Speaker 5: to call them to get to the goaltender, and he
Speaker 5: was just smooth as silk.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 5: He also had a really good year last year in
Speaker 5: World Juniors. He participated and had a pretty impactful series there.
Speaker 5: I think with Hagen's right, he played Yeah, and again
Speaker 5: they were fun to watch. They played well off each other.
Speaker 5: We're look into the future, we're starting to look at
Speaker 5: hopefully some future linemates.
Speaker 2: But I thought just popped into my head, you know,
Speaker 2: don't overrate the importance of these players having played with
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, and that actually brings me Cooper Simpson, who
Speaker 4: is here for his we drafted him last year, keeps
Speaker 4: a Chel, but he is.
Speaker 1: Also heading to North Dakota.
Speaker 4: Holmens Nullers are going to be teammates.
Speaker 5: This year, all right, So let's shift gears little bit
Speaker 5: to the defensive side of things. The Bruins' identity for
Speaker 5: years now has been solid, good defense, and it's something
Speaker 5: that we have struggled with the last couple of years,
Speaker 5: and so seeing the defensive players out there gave me hope.
Speaker 5: There were a lot of names that I have recognized
Speaker 5: from past drafts, past DEV camps, but two guys that
Speaker 5: I want to touch on are Lokijo Hanssen and Christian Kostadinski.
Speaker 5: Primarily because with Kostadinski, we talked about him last year
Speaker 5: as being somebody of note and I one hundred percent
Speaker 5: noticed him. But also with Johansen, he was the only
Speaker 5: player there who actually has AHL experience, and I have
Speaker 5: to say I could tell, and I'm not saying because
Speaker 5: the other kids were not good, but his degree of control,
Speaker 5: especially like in his skating.
Speaker 2: Listen to me, I want to talk about anybody that
Speaker 2: plays defense. Yes, over six feet tall and weighs over
Speaker 2: two hundred pounds, Yes, sign me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a big guy.
Speaker 4: He is twenty we drafted him in twenty twenty four
Speaker 4: in the sixth round. This is his third camp. He
Speaker 4: just finished year one of a three year contract. We've
Speaker 4: got two more years with him. Last season he split
Speaker 4: his time between Maine and Providence. When I'm watching him
Speaker 4: accamp this year, I saw some really good stuff from
Speaker 4: him on the boards. He was just really solid there,
Speaker 4: and I've seen so much growth in his game over
Speaker 4: the last couple of years. Again, he made that shift
Speaker 4: going up until playing to the professional level. Now, what
Speaker 4: I'm hoping is that he gets more time in Providence
Speaker 4: than Maine, if not all the time Improvidence, So I
Speaker 4: think that'll be really helpful. I don't think it was
Speaker 4: great for him to bounce around between the two. I
Speaker 4: think that some consistency and your team and your linemates
Speaker 4: really helps you to develop as far as it goes.
Speaker 4: The one thing that I don't love, I think that
Speaker 4: in part he can be a little bit behind and
Speaker 4: still kind of reach out and catch up. But I'd
Speaker 4: love to see him anticipating that and just getting a
Speaker 4: little bit more ahead of stuff. He led the stretch
Speaker 4: on day two, so again seeing that trust, that leadership
Speaker 4: from the coach. I always love to see that from them.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I definitely am seeing some good stuff from him.
Speaker 4: Definitely a huge jump from last year to this year
Speaker 4: and from the first year I saw him.
Speaker 5: So where do you see him potentially reappearing. I have
Speaker 5: to assume we're going to see him at rookie camp
Speaker 5: because of all the guys that we saw, most of
Speaker 5: these players who have been drafted, seems like they're pretty
Speaker 5: much all going back to college in the fall.
Speaker 1: So do we think we'll see him at rookie camp.
Speaker 4: I think he'll be at rookie camp. I think he's
Speaker 4: in that position to vye for a job. Some of
Speaker 4: that's going to be dependent on as we shake it
Speaker 4: all out after all of the stuff that's going on
Speaker 4: in the past few weeks, who else is coming up?
Speaker 4: Who else is aiming for that job? But rookie camp
Speaker 4: is about now. Remember too, it's rookie camp. There are
Speaker 4: some players that are already on the Bruins squad, so
Speaker 4: they're not coming to rookie Camp. They have a job.
Speaker 4: So it's how many spots do we have and who's
Speaker 4: fighting for those jobs? So we should get over the
Speaker 4: coming weeks, we should have an idea of who's going
Speaker 4: to be invited to rookie camp.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope he gets a look.
Speaker 2: I appreciated during the scrimmages watching the aggressive way that
Speaker 2: he played defense.
Speaker 5: Well, we talk about this quite often, especially when we're
Speaker 5: talking about young players, whether they're at in Boston at
Speaker 5: the NHL level or at the other levels. Different positions
Speaker 5: develop at different rates because of the varying skills sets
Speaker 5: that they need to master. They're just might be more
Speaker 5: things that you have to do and perfect with those
Speaker 5: foundational skills. Forwards tend to hit peak and either're gonna
Speaker 5: hit their ceiling a lot. Younger twenty five to twenty
Speaker 5: six defenceman. I've always kind of seen that magic age
Speaker 5: be twenty seven to twenty eight, and then goalies are
Speaker 5: the last ones because there's fifty billion things that they
Speaker 5: have to be doing in a game. And so Johansson
Speaker 5: is twenty. That is an infant in terms of position.
Speaker 5: But I agree, I really hope to see him play
Speaker 5: full time in Providence. I got to see him play
Speaker 5: that one game I just happened to be in Providence
Speaker 5: for and he was there and very noticeable even amongst
Speaker 5: those players. So he's what I'm excited for because again
Speaker 5: he's been in the system for three years, so I
Speaker 5: love to see them continue to grow and develop. Christian Costadinski,
Speaker 5: you can't see the other people, but I am like
Speaker 5: rubbing my.
Speaker 1: Hands together over this kid. What six two thirty five
Speaker 1: Maria is drooling, rueling.
Speaker 4: You. He's tons of promise there. So he is twenty one.
Speaker 4: We drafted him in twenty twenty three, is a seventh
Speaker 4: round pick. This is his third camp and he is
Speaker 4: a rising sophomore at BC. One of the things with
Speaker 4: Costadinsky is he was not a strong skater, and that
Speaker 4: is putting it quite kindly. In twenty twenty four, he
Speaker 4: is still working on his skating. But I will tell
Speaker 4: you BC unbelievable job developing players and are teaching them
Speaker 4: to skate. We have BC to thank for coastadentinkcoming a skater.
Speaker 2: I was surprised because I made note of this about
Speaker 2: how smoothly and cleanly he was able to move the
Speaker 2: puck out of the defensive zone during battle drills that
Speaker 2: were happening.
Speaker 1: But the scrimmage.
Speaker 4: One of the things I actually one of the notes
Speaker 4: I took was on Tuesday, I was noticing he had
Speaker 4: some really great reps with some really solid edgework, and
Speaker 4: it was noticeable to me, in part because I've been
Speaker 4: watching him the last few years, but it was enough
Speaker 4: to even to catch my eye. That's one of the
Speaker 4: things at DEV campus. There's a lot of players on
Speaker 4: the ice. They don't wear numbers, so unless you're back
Speaker 4: is to you, you have no idea who I don't
Speaker 4: know who it is you start to catch your eye.
Speaker 4: Now he does, because he's just big.
Speaker 1: He's vague.
Speaker 4: But the first year that I saw met camp Laturno's
Speaker 4: first year, they were really big guys. But now we've
Speaker 4: got more coming up, so it's not as much of
Speaker 4: oh it must be Costaedinski. Now, let's be honest, he
Speaker 4: still is a giant among bigger players, but it is
Speaker 4: interesting that we're starting to catch up a little bit.
Speaker 2: No, but someone for someone who's six six, two thirty five, right,
Speaker 2: he's likely still hasn't finished developing.
Speaker 1: Let's face it.
Speaker 2: You know, Zudana Shower Hall of Famer, one of the
Speaker 2: greatest defensemans ever pull on a Bruins jersey, but neverthe
Speaker 2: most fleet of foot with his skating right because of
Speaker 2: his size and gangliness. If that's a technical term to
Speaker 2: use when you see a kid like this Kostadinski who
Speaker 2: seems to be like, geez, you look pretty good for
Speaker 2: a big man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you take notice of that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I mean there's always going to be that
Speaker 5: kind of We discussed that Maria at camp. The illusion
Speaker 5: of well, gee, is this giant player just not as
Speaker 5: good as a skater. Don't look at their the speed
Speaker 5: of their feet, and look more at how much distance
Speaker 5: can they cover? How efficient is there skating and are
Speaker 5: they in proper skating form? Because you want to see
Speaker 5: a guy like that be really efficient in his skating.
Speaker 5: You don't need to see him, you know, stumping his
Speaker 5: feet and going super fast with his legs, because that
Speaker 5: would just be insane. His legs are probably four feet
Speaker 5: long to the you're already there exactly, so he definitely
Speaker 5: stood out. He's going back to Boston College. You said
Speaker 5: he's going into his sophomore yearly.
Speaker 4: Into his sophomore year, so we've got and my guess
Speaker 4: is he takes four years to develop there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean again, why not? Why not? Right?
Speaker 5: Especially for defensemen, you want to make sure that they
Speaker 5: cook as hon as goaltenders. Now, before we talk about
Speaker 5: the two goalies that I wanted to address being Yuri Ivanov,
Speaker 5: who literally was drafted Saturday and then showed up in
Speaker 5: Boston on Monday, which I love those little stories how
Speaker 5: that happens.
Speaker 1: And then there's Max Lugren Kyle Chavet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Kyle was an inviting to camp and he's
Speaker 4: twenty four years old. He graduated from University of New
Speaker 4: Hampshire last spring, and while we were at camp it
Speaker 4: was announced he is going to be the ebug for
Speaker 4: the Bruins this year.
Speaker 1: Good on the local kid, Good on the local kid.
Speaker 4: Now it's important to know the NHL actually changed the
Speaker 4: ebug role this year.
Speaker 1: Yes, everyone has to carry one now. No more random
Speaker 1: zamboni driver. No no, no.
Speaker 4: What's going to be fun for Kyle is he's going
Speaker 4: to travel and practice with the team. He doesn't count
Speaker 4: against our cap pit, he's not technically signed to an
Speaker 4: NHL contract that the ebug needs to be someone who
Speaker 4: has never played an NHL game and cannot have played
Speaker 4: professionally in the last three years for more than eighty games.
Speaker 4: So it is still the spirit of this zamboni.
Speaker 2: The zamboni driver, right, but it's not exactly the letter
Speaker 2: of everyone. You're not going up in the stands and
Speaker 2: plucking a guy out.
Speaker 1: Of the buildings.
Speaker 2: Do they do they get? This is where I got
Speaker 2: a little lost in the weeds with the rule. Do
Speaker 2: these ebugs receive some type of payment?
Speaker 1: They are? I couldn't find exactly what it is.
Speaker 2: Because I thought I was losing it that I'm like,
Speaker 2: these guys are going to be doing this for nothing.
Speaker 4: I knew it was an organization higher somebody in the organization,
Speaker 4: but the player.
Speaker 5: I'm assuming they invited him knowing that he probably had
Speaker 5: that job and they just hadn't announced it because he
Speaker 5: was an invite I gotta tell you, not knowing any
Speaker 5: of that till you told us this this morning. My
Speaker 5: very first note on him was great feet. Love his feet,
Speaker 5: his footwork excellent. They say that the goalie actually has
Speaker 5: to be your best skater, the best one on their
Speaker 5: skates out of the entire team, and he had fantastic feet.
Speaker 1: But that stood out to me.
Speaker 5: But we're not really here to talk too much about
Speaker 5: him because he's not really in the pipeline. Let's talk
Speaker 5: about Yuri Ivanov, this guy, like I said, besides loving
Speaker 5: watching these drills anyways, I am always drawn to watching
Speaker 5: the goalies because again, my kid, it's a goalie. I
Speaker 5: watch goaltending fundamentals constantly. This guy, when he was out
Speaker 5: on the ice, I believe he was out there with
Speaker 5: Chavette and another player who is just an invite. And
Speaker 5: he's six foot two, so he's not like excessively tall,
Speaker 5: and he was only like an inch taller than the
Speaker 5: other two players out there. But the space that this
Speaker 5: kid takes up, with how he positions himself, probably the
Speaker 5: equipment he's using. Holy cow, this kid takes up the net.
Speaker 5: And he was the Bruins' first pick for this year's draft.
Speaker 5: I believe, yes he was.
Speaker 4: Oh he is actually only seventeen, so this is what
Speaker 4: makes him pretty amazing. In my book seventeen, he'll turn
Speaker 4: eighteen in September. We already talked about how goalies developed later.
Speaker 4: He is playing right now in the MHK, so that
Speaker 4: is the Russian juniors. He'll be going back to Russian juniors.
Speaker 4: Last year, in seventeen games, he had a zo point
Speaker 4: nine two four safe percentage and a two point six
Speaker 4: to two goals against average, So nice numbers. He should
Speaker 4: be there for the next couple of years. He's got
Speaker 4: no five hole, and he's got, as you mentioned, great
Speaker 4: lateral movement, and he takes up the net. The one
Speaker 4: thing I started to notice, but this is the thing
Speaker 4: I don't pay too much attention to goalies at dev camp.
Speaker 4: They're young, and they basically are petned with goals for
Speaker 4: four solid days.
Speaker 2: I don't even know how you can qualify it is
Speaker 2: development camp for these poor goalies because all they're seeing.
Speaker 1: Is rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber.
Speaker 2: From the town they set foot on the ice until
Speaker 2: they get off the ice, so it's really difficult to
Speaker 2: kind of make an assessment of them.
Speaker 1: The one thing that.
Speaker 2: I did notice early on in the development camp, and
Speaker 2: it wasn't just him, but it seemed like most of
Speaker 2: the goalies were really struggling with shots up high, you know,
Speaker 2: anything that was top's shelf or glove side or by
Speaker 2: the shoulder. They were having a hard time. And maybe
Speaker 2: that was just to start a camp and not understanding
Speaker 2: what the hell they was supposed to be doing or
Speaker 2: what their roles were on the ice as the goalies there,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I did feel bad for them in that regard.
Speaker 5: This is kind of my take on what I see
Speaker 5: with the goalies. So one of the things that I
Speaker 5: watched while the skaters were doing their warm up skate drills,
Speaker 5: the goalies we're having a little bit of one on
Speaker 5: one time with the goalie coach doing not only their
Speaker 5: version of warm ups and doing some post work, but
Speaker 5: they have that opportunity.
Speaker 1: That one on one time with the.
Speaker 5: Goalie coach to do some training work, a little bit
Speaker 5: of coaching that was happening there. They'll do their little
Speaker 5: thing and then the coach will talk to them afterwards,
Speaker 5: and then they do it again and they implement those
Speaker 5: kinds of changes, because that's kind of how goalie training works.
Speaker 1: In that sense. It's not like with a.
Speaker 5: Skaters drill, where okay, you got to skate to the
Speaker 5: dock here, and you got to pick up the puck
Speaker 5: and you got to pass it, and you got to
Speaker 5: do all these very obvious things. With the goalies, it's
Speaker 5: going to be a lot more smaller action, smaller movements
Speaker 5: that they're gonna practice the same kind of little routine
Speaker 5: over and over and over again. That might not seem
Speaker 5: like a ton is going on, but I saw them
Speaker 5: doing that in that kind of one on one time
Speaker 5: and then for the most part, I would say, when
Speaker 5: they are out there facing the shots and everything, I
Speaker 5: really wish I was there for that day that you
Speaker 5: saw you were texting me Maria about the goalies, because I.
Speaker 1: Probably could have been able to assess it a little
Speaker 1: bit better.
Speaker 5: When they get into the net to serve as foil
Speaker 5: for the skater, I'm not I don't want to say
Speaker 5: that they're not trying hard, but the point isn't necessarily
Speaker 5: to stop every puck like you would have them in
Speaker 5: a game. So it's entirely possible that, yes, man, we
Speaker 5: got issues up to one hundred percent could be but
Speaker 5: the fact that it sounded like every single one of
Speaker 5: them was doing that kind of tells me that maybe
Speaker 5: what they were doing was doing a like an eighty
Speaker 5: percent effort, right right.
Speaker 2: It's not a knock on, well, no knock got just
Speaker 2: something I noticed, but very interesting.
Speaker 5: How so different development is for goalies and the training
Speaker 5: and everything that kind of goes in.
Speaker 1: Who cooking up a good goalie.
Speaker 5: That's why we have so many in the system, because
Speaker 5: you never know how they're going to turn out.
Speaker 1: It's like sourdough, My god, you don't know. It just
Speaker 1: seventeen year old who knows. Now.
Speaker 4: Again, this is an important thing to keep in mind
Speaker 4: too when we talk about development camp. When you see
Speaker 4: video of some of these players and stuff, we don't
Speaker 4: actually know what they're working on every time. So it
Speaker 4: may be like, boy, they really don't look like they're
Speaker 4: doing this skill great, But it may be that the
Speaker 4: coach said, I'd like you to do this while we're
Speaker 4: you know, while we're performing this particular exercise. Now, the
Speaker 4: one thing I did notice is for Ivanov, and I
Speaker 4: feel like he was over anticipating what was coming and
Speaker 4: wasn't necessarily correcting in the moment. But again, they're peppered
Speaker 4: with goals for four straight days. You do see them
Speaker 4: getting fatigued by day four when you're just sitting there
Speaker 4: getting after put well.
Speaker 2: And you know what, they were sharp. They were sharper
Speaker 2: during the scrimmage component of the development camp. Yeah, definitely
Speaker 2: a different level now.
Speaker 5: Max Lundgren, even though he's from Sweden, local boy so
Speaker 5: to speak. Merrimack College won the Hockey East this year
Speaker 5: this past the spring with him and net.
Speaker 6: He's huge and it was the MVP of the tournament.
Speaker 6: He's huge, He's genormous. Yeah, he's six ft five. He
Speaker 6: literally takes up a lot of space.
Speaker 5: Let's hear I want to hear from you, but I
Speaker 5: just my one comment about him was I didn't love
Speaker 5: his feet as much as I loved Chauvet's feet. But man,
Speaker 5: he can quickly get to the other side just because
Speaker 5: of how freakin' tall he is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's twenty four. We signed him as a free
Speaker 4: agent in March, like right at the end of his season.
Speaker 4: He was undrafted. Obviously, he had a little bit of
Speaker 4: a different path. He actually played youth hockey in Sweden.
Speaker 4: He had a little stint in the USHL. He was
Speaker 4: NCAA ineligible first freshman year due to the league that
Speaker 4: he played in in Sweden.
Speaker 1: This was nc Double A.
Speaker 4: Rules were different then, so he started Merrimac playing his
Speaker 4: software year even though he went there as a freshman.
Speaker 4: So basically, again this red shirt rule, he's somebody who
Speaker 4: would have been caught up in the new rules there.
Speaker 4: From everything I can find about him, he is a responsible,
Speaker 4: hard worker and he took his college education very seriously.
Speaker 4: I just think that speaks to a level of maturity
Speaker 4: we don't always see at this age. So again, he
Speaker 4: led the Hockey East in wins, he was MVP of
Speaker 4: the Hockey East tournament, had the most saves.
Speaker 1: In the NC DOUBLEA.
Speaker 4: This year, We've got a few goalies in the pipeline
Speaker 4: and I'm not quite sure where they're going to shake out.
Speaker 4: I think he's going to end up being Providence, not Maine.
Speaker 1: I gotta see. We just signed somebody new who I
Speaker 1: don't know enough about.
Speaker 5: I think one of the things that Boston Bruins organization
Speaker 5: has done tremendously well in regards to their development. There
Speaker 5: meant some issues with how they developed some of the skaters,
Speaker 5: but goaltending development is just one of those things that.
Speaker 1: The Bruins do. They seem to do consistently well.
Speaker 2: And I will say I'm glad that they're changing their
Speaker 2: mindset in terms of you know, one of the criticisms
Speaker 2: that many of us have levied at the Boston Bruins
Speaker 2: is they never had a plan for the ultimate departure
Speaker 2: of the trees bergeron and David Craigie. Well, now you've
Speaker 2: got a franchise goalie right in Jeremy Swainman. You know
Speaker 2: how long you have him, His deal is going to
Speaker 2: be very team friendly at the end of it, but
Speaker 2: you have to be prepared for the eventuality that you're
Speaker 2: going to need to fill that role, you know. I'm
Speaker 2: glad to see that they're at least living for the
Speaker 2: future and not just the now these days.
Speaker 4: And I do want to mention we did have one
Speaker 4: more goalie at camp, Roberto. He was HL for Green
Speaker 4: Bay Leader Safe percentage was right. He is starting at
Speaker 4: BC in the fall, so again it's the bunk from
Speaker 4: college bruin point. But that's I want to make sure
Speaker 4: I mention him this year sixth round. But he's also
Speaker 4: going to be another friend at BC. And also he's
Speaker 4: the only goalie we didn't talk about. Make sure we
Speaker 4: mention his name, yes, of course.
Speaker 5: And I wonder if we will see any of these
Speaker 5: goalies come back next year to the dev camp, because
Speaker 5: it almost seems like when it comes to the DEV Camp,
Speaker 5: the goalie piece tends to be revolving, which could be
Speaker 5: entirely a byproduct of the fact that the way that
Speaker 5: you develop goaltenders is very different. I think, Maria, to
Speaker 5: your point of looking to the future, when Tim Thomas left,
Speaker 5: we had Tuka, You've stepped right up. When Tuka left,
Speaker 5: we had swaymen pay up in so we've been very
Speaker 5: lucky in that regard.
Speaker 1: We've not had that gap.
Speaker 5: And I think, for as much as we like to
Speaker 5: make fun of Don Sweene this summer collecting goalies like
Speaker 5: their pokemon, he and his staff know what they're doing
Speaker 5: when it comes to collecting a large variety of different
Speaker 5: kinds of goalies. Because it is such a long term gamble,
Speaker 5: you're not gonna see the return for a number of years.
Speaker 1: So it's smart, as much as I hate to admit
Speaker 1: him being smart. But so what comes next?
Speaker 5: When are we gonna maybe hear about rookie camp and
Speaker 5: who's in attendance.
Speaker 4: Over the next couple of weeks, the schedule for the
Speaker 4: year is going to come out. We'll get the roster
Speaker 4: for rookie camp that's often played around with right up
Speaker 4: until right before camp, and that's going to be the
Speaker 4: second week of September.
Speaker 1: For most of these.
Speaker 4: Guys, they're younger, they have a game plan for next year.
Speaker 4: We're not necessarily going to see them unless you're following
Speaker 4: NCUBA or some of the junior leagues, which is fine.
Speaker 4: We will see a lot of these players again next year,
Speaker 4: and I'll have an article on sub Stack with some
Speaker 4: of the players, because obviously I could talk all day
Speaker 4: about all of them.
Speaker 1: To listen to that we had.
Speaker 4: We had a pretty big draft class, but they were
Speaker 4: lower tiered picks this year compared to sometimes when we've
Speaker 4: got these first round picks like Laturno or Higgins that
Speaker 4: are that are really exciting.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean they're not going to be good.
Speaker 5: Last year, a lot of the attendees from dev Camp
Speaker 5: did end up going to Rookie Camp because they had
Speaker 5: completed whatever developmental path they were on. This year, that's
Speaker 5: not necessarily the case because we had so many kind
Speaker 5: of graduate from dev Camp and go on to HL
Speaker 5: or EHL. Got a lot of guys now who have
Speaker 5: filled in these spots and so we're not going to
Speaker 5: see most of them.
Speaker 4: The ones that will see at Rookie Camp are going
Speaker 4: to be the ones who are going to be playing
Speaker 4: either they're going to get the invite to the big
Speaker 4: show as that we're up in Boston, they'll be in Providence,
Speaker 4: they'll be in Maine. Most of these players, they're younger,
Speaker 4: particularly the newly drafted ones. They're younger. They are NCAA,
Speaker 4: they are juniors. Got you know my standout of camp,
Speaker 4: which again i'll put on this sub sect, Popkov. He's
Speaker 4: only seventeen. It plays Russian juniors.
Speaker 2: He's got some sick hands, that kid. Yeah, you and
Speaker 2: I chatted about this on Thursday, Mary Beth. The start
Speaker 2: of the scrimmage or at the drills, he didn't really
Speaker 2: look engaged to begin the day. Then he stepped it
Speaker 2: up definitely during the scrimmage.
Speaker 4: One of the things that's really interesting about development camp
Speaker 4: is that some of the players who are invisible to
Speaker 4: me all week, you putting them in the scrimmage, and
Speaker 4: all of a sudden they are shining and you're just like, where.
Speaker 1: Have you been on where have you been?
Speaker 4: Or there's ones that you've been watching during these drills,
Speaker 4: during these exercises, and you're looking for the scrimmage, you're like, well,
Speaker 4: where are you?
Speaker 1: Are you even playing out there? Which is why you
Speaker 1: do both. Yeah, it's very exciting. But thank you again,
Speaker 1: Marybeth for you, Yes, for your thorough assessment. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: giving up a lot of your time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're gonna chat again at the very end of
Speaker 5: the summer, maybe get a refresher on some names that
Speaker 5: we've seen before. Maybe there's gonna be someone that we've
Speaker 5: not really ever talked about, so that'll be exciting to
Speaker 5: see who our more immediate prospects are as September approaches.
Speaker 5: In the meantime, we're gonna put together you and I
Speaker 5: some stuff for the substack, a little bit more detail
Speaker 5: and more information about these players and how you can
Speaker 5: keep track of them, where to watch them if you're
Speaker 5: nearby some D one hockey or junior hockey. How can
Speaker 5: our listeners find you, Maribeth?
Speaker 1: You can find me on my socials.
Speaker 4: I am always at mb skis, I'm active on threads,
Speaker 4: I'm on Instagram, I'm on blue Sky, So you can
Speaker 4: find me all those places at mb skis.
Speaker 1: And so happy start of our fourth season.
Speaker 5: We have lots on the calendar for this summer. It
Speaker 5: may be summertime, but we still always have hockey to
Speaker 5: talk about.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about some of our newer.
Speaker 5: Players who have returned to Boston or who are starting
Speaker 5: in Boston, and a little bit later this month, we
Speaker 5: will do a recap of a crazy free agency for
Speaker 5: everybody else but apparently Boston, so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 5: In the meantime, make sure you like and subscribe for
Speaker 5: more content, and be sure to leave a rating and
Speaker 5: review to help other Bruins fans find us. You can
Speaker 5: support the podcast by joining our Patreon or following us
Speaker 5: on our socials and on substack at Tape to Tape
Speaker 5: mk dot substack dot com.
Speaker 2: Any final thoughts Getting close to hockey season starting ever
Speaker 2: so closer, So writing every day is a step closer.
Speaker 4: As I tell my niece, rest up, hydrate, and get
Speaker 4: ready because the season will be here before we know it.
Speaker 1: It sure will. It's going to be an earlier start
Speaker 1: for sure. As always, go bees O bees, sobees,
Podbean