Defensemen to Watch: Boston Bruins Prospects Ready to Step Up | Ep. 158

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me, please?

0:03 Speaker 2: I need something to do.

0:06 Speaker 3: Ostrac, send it out in front of Oak in this evening's game!

0:20 Speaker 2: Here's a chance, Patra right in on goal, he scores.

0:22 Speaker 1: Oh my, what a move by the rookie.

0:24 Speaker 3: Two on one, Pasternak moving.

0:25 Speaker 2: In with Marjan, get into it, scores! Out of the zone, Hoyle, dances in, backhand, scores!

0:32 Speaker 1: Went home, right wing.

0:34 Speaker 3: Corner, Pasternak is there, he scores! David Pasternak wins it for Boston! Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruins Tape to Tape. I will be your host today. I'm Maria from Watertown. I am joined as always by my fabulous co-host, Caroline with a K. And today joining us is friend of our pod, Mary Beth. And today's episode, we're going to start a one of a two part feature here. in anticipation of upcoming Bruins rookie camp, where we're going to do a little bit of a deep dive into the Bruins prospects for 2026 that came out of development camp and who we may be projecting to see potentially at rookie camp.

1:33 Speaker 3: And we're going to break it down in terms of defensemen and forwards. So we're going to start with the defenseman initially. But before we get started, welcome in, ladies. It's great to see you both.

1:45 Speaker 2: Hello.

1:46 Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having me. Always fun to be here.

1:49 Speaker 2: We love talking about the new guys with you. We're excited to make our guesses because we don't know who's actually going to be there because they have a tendency to not actually announce the rookie camp roster until maybe two days before. So all of this is very speculative. So I think we can have a lot of fun and we're going to find out. Probably not until, what, the 9th? Who actually makes it?

2:14 Speaker 3: And interestingly enough to our listeners, each of us had an opportunity to attend one or more sessions of Development Camp. And I know that I had my quote-unquote favorites that I was watching, and maybe I didn't keep a keen enough eye on others to get a full and comprehensive view. assessment of these particular players. And we do have some who returned from development camp in 2025. So I don't know if you read too much into that. Can we read into that, that the organization is very much interested in these returning players and could they likely get an invitation to rookie camp and So there's some of the questions that we hope to have some insight into.

3:01 Speaker 3: I don't want to say that we'll get clear-cut answers on because that's all subject to what the organization's going to do, what the organization wants to do with these players. But we can certainly have a conversation about them.

3:14 Speaker 2: And it seems like this year, last year at the NHL level, the Bruins were going through their retool and we saw some changes there. In that regard, I think we saw that with the 2026 development camp, because I think that's almost like it started a new cycle. And we're likely going to see significantly fewer players from development camp at rookie camp compared to prior years. I think the general consensus is really maybe one. from DevCamp this year without jumping too far ahead, but it should be interesting.

3:54 Speaker 2: Certainly a lot of those guys from DevCamp this year also, we may see them, just not until April, which is a little bit different than what we've seen in the past couple of seasons, I think.

4:06 Speaker 1: Yeah, as I was trying to prepare for this conversation, it's a little bonkers. And it goes back to the last two episodes that the two of you had on the podcast about who do we have? And we're at this time of the season that is always kind of fun, but always a little weird where you look and say, how do we Tetris all of these players into a viable roster? So we're looking at that from the NHL perspective. When we come down to rookie camp, I think it's helpful if we go over what rookie camp is and how it differs from development camp.

4:38 Speaker 2: Yes. Give us that refresher.

4:40 Speaker 1: Rookie camp happens a couple of days before regular training camp. This year it is on the 11th and 12th of September. And then they have what they call the prospect showcase or the rookie showcase the following two days. Rookie camp is obviously a super short camp. It's for player development and evaluation. Most of the players are the ones who are getting ready for the NHL right now. Now, there's a little bit of wiggle room in there. Not everyone who comes into rookie camp is definitely going to be playing in the NHL or even the AHL just yet.

5:16 Speaker 1: But what they're trying to do is they're trying to impress and they're trying to get a spot and an invite to the main camp or get a spot on the Providence Bruins. Yeah. They have a couple of days of practice. Then they go to the Prospect Showcase up in Buffalo, where this year there's two games. Both of them are just against Buffalo. It's really a separation for who's ready to play in Boston, who's ready to play in Providence. Also, we might see a little bit of who are we going to see next summer at development camp.

5:45 Speaker 1: The invites to rookie camp are going to be players who are already in our system that's already been drafted, might be some unsigned free agents, and it might be players who are recently turned professional. A really good example of this would be last year we got Fraser Minton in a trade with Brandon Carlo from the Leafs.

6:04 Speaker 2: Yes, always. We will be using that to rub in their faces for many seasons.

6:09 Speaker 1: Forever. Yeah. No, he was a nice little pickup, but he was invited to rookie camp. People might remember me speaking about him last year where he just really didn't belong there. But the Bruins invite him there, A, because they wanted to give him a little bit more ice time. And B, they did not know who he was. When we got him for the trade, we really didn't have an opportunity to watch him play. So occasionally we're going to have these players that might be a little bit above what you would consider needing to be at rookie camp.

6:38 Speaker 1: But we may also have some players who are not quite ready for prime time.

6:43 Speaker 2: The key thing is this isn't necessarily a one time ever thing. Just because you have been to rookie camp once before, you can still go back to rookie camp. The qualifiers are you're on the entry level deal. You haven't locked down an official NHL role and you're still under 24. What we've seen in the past is a lot of guys are repeat visitors to rookie camp. And it's usually the ones who have been there at least once before get to actually get invited to the big camps. For example, the percentage of players who have actually been invited to the main camp has been going down in recent years.

7:25 Speaker 2: So last year, Only 41% of them actually got invited. Prior to that, it was 44%. It was 71%. It was 73%.

7:32 Speaker 1: That's exactly right. And it may be, too, they didn't get their shot last year. They're coming back to rookie camp, and maybe this year they've got time for a legitimate shot. Now, what's really important when we're looking at rookie camp, NCAA players do not come to rookie camp. When we're thinking about Letourneau, we're not going to be seeing him. There was rule changes in 2025. So they are actually eligible to come to the camp. Oh. But because of eligibility rules, they cannot play in external games or scrimmages against outside teams.

8:05 Speaker 2: They couldn't do the prospect challenge.

8:08 Speaker 1: They can't do the showcase.

8:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, the prospect challenge, showcase, whatever they call it.

8:12 Speaker 1: So they could come for the two days, but the whole point of this is come for the two days and go and play together. Now, additionally, U-20 National in Sweden and the MHL in Russia are starting their seasons next week. That means we've got another few of our prospects that are already in our pipeline that we're not going to be seeing. Most of the players, at least for last year, and really maybe for this year, we don't know the lineup yet, have already played professionally either with the ECHL or the AHL.

8:41 Speaker 1: Some of them are already in the Bruins system. So development camp, we talk about being hockey school. Rookie camp, think of like tryouts. For sure. Now, it's interesting because last year we had a couple of guys, part of our rookie camp, that we're definitely not seeing this year. They're already gone. I was going through the list. They're either already well into our Providence Bruins system, or they've been traded, or they've aged out of the system and weren't re-signed. For some, depending on their age, it might be a make or break time.

9:10 Speaker 1: For most, though, it's just another step forward. in the development of the player. This is where we start to get, you start to see, you're like, oh yeah, I forgot about that guy. You know, there are guys at development camp and at rookie camp where you're like, oh, that guy really impressed me what happened to him. Sometimes they're just gone. So when we think about some of the guys that we've seen at rookie camp over the last couple of years that we're definitely not going to see, we've got like Dean Letourneau, Will Zellers, Cooper Simpson, Chris Pelosi, Beckett Hendrickson, Jonathan Morello, Kasper Nasson, Cole Spicer.

9:47 Speaker 1: Those are just the forwards that we will not see because they are NCAA committed. As far as the defenseman goes, we're not going to see Liam Pedersen, Elliot Greenwald, Lenash, Kostadinsky, Colin McCrae, Michael Neumeier. We're not going to see any of these guys. They're all committed either to NCAA or to the Swedish teams, the Russian teams, the ones who are playing. Now, if they're playing in the juniors... there's still a good chance of seeing them because their season starts a little bit later.

10:19 Speaker 1: So we'll talk a little bit about a couple of players. That's why this was particularly interesting to plan for because this year, more than previous years, we have a lot more players in the NCAA system and already in the Bruins system. Now, You need to have a full roster.

10:38 Speaker 2: Well, I was just going to ask you that.

10:40 Speaker 3: How are you going to run a rookie camp and play these prospect games? Based on what you're telling me, a good number of these players between the forwards and the defensemen, you're going to have to fill the sheet of ice.

10:53 Speaker 1: We're going to start filling it up. Let me give you an idea. Like last year, we had Robert Cronin. was at rookie camp. My guess is we'll see him again this year. Well, he's signed with Maine now, so he's still of an age that we might see him at rookie camp. He's playing ECHL for us. We look at somebody like Cooper Simpson. He was still playing juniors last year. He came to rookie camp, but now he's NCAA, so we're not going to be seeing him. This is the sort of thing like Fraser Minton. Again, should he really been at rookie camp?

11:22 Speaker 1: I'm glad he was.

11:23 Speaker 2: It was a technicality.

11:24 Speaker 1: Yeah. A little bit of a goofy formality. We may see some of these players. Riley Duran was at rookie camp last year and then ended up playing with Providence, which is great. Now he is of an age we might see him again at rookie camp or we may not. I think we're going to end up filling in with a few more players from Providence than we might have previously.

11:46 Speaker 2: Yeah.

11:46 Speaker 1: That's going to be my guess.

11:47 Speaker 2: Right.

11:48 Speaker 1: Players who are coming to rookie camp may or may not be invited to training camp. Management might have an idea of, yeah, we know that we probably want to bring them to training camp, but they're not a solid invite just yet. When you look at some of these, like Jordan Harris, I think he's a great example.

12:04 Speaker 3: Uh-huh.

12:05 Speaker 1: He is of an age and of an ability that he could theoretically come to rookie camp when you look at it from that perspective. But he's already a solid NHL player. He's been playing with the NHL. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for him to take this step back. But that's the sort of kind of player you'd be looking at that might be a little bit of a bubble player.

12:26 Speaker 3: So let me ask you this then. because there's been a lot of conversation around Frederick Brunet. Where does he fit into this situation?

12:34 Speaker 1: He is a maybe. He was not at rookie camp last year because the fact is, He's solidly in the system. Now, we all know I love Freddie Burnett. I cannot wait for him to come up. So he is somebody that we are probably not going to see at rookie camp. Same token, we do have to fill out the roster. Right, right.

12:54 Speaker 2: I was thinking about Jordan Harris. And again, with that comparison with Fraser Minton coming in, it being a technicality, because obviously he was skilled enough, by the same... Line of thought, you need to have enough players who can participate in the Prospects Challenge. They didn't really get to know Jordan Harris as an on-ice player as well as they could have because he was out for so long. The number of games that he played were pretty minimal. And maybe this is also something that they can have him do to get going and to kind of give him a little bit of a leg up.

13:34 Speaker 2: so that they know that he is truly ready for training camp because they want to set him up for success. I could see him very much so getting an invite to rookie camp just for that purpose, right? And maybe even with Brunet.

13:48 Speaker 1: He's one that maybe they'd bring him in for that. And again, that's why I think Fraser was invited last year. It could be a reason Jordan Harris could be. But again, last year for Jordan Harris, there wasn't really a question that he was going to make the roster. He wasn't at rookie camp last year. And Brene wasn't at rookie camp last year, even though he had been at development camp for another couple of years previously, which is where I saw him. And I've been singing his praises for years. For some of these players, we might see them to fill it out.

14:17 Speaker 2: Yeah. So looking at who was at camp last year and who was also at development camp, who we will probably see at this year's rookie camp. Speaking just about defensemen, I jotted down a couple of names because I did forget about some of these guys. First and foremost, I think the one that I knew and could remember the best was obviously Loki Johansson. And then Dylan McKinnon, I forgot that he was at Rookie Camp last year. And I only remembered that he was at Dev Camp this year because you kept saying how every time he was...

14:59 Speaker 2: And he's also a guy who is in the system. He's up in Maine. But I would have to imagine that because he was at Rookie Camp last year, especially because he was seen at Development Camp, this summer, I think it's probably a pretty reasonable expectation that he's going to be there for rookie camp this year.

15:20 Speaker 1: Yes?

15:20 Speaker 3: Yeah.

15:21 Speaker 1: The players that I am pretty much expecting are going to be Yawasin and McKinnon. Those, I think, are too solid based on their age, based on where they are in the system. I think they are looking on jumping up a level, on improving themselves. I do not expect either one of those to break into training camp. They may get the invite. Because remember, part of rookie camp is do you get the invite to training camp? If you get the invite to training camp, it's a fairly certain expectation that you are now fighting for that job.

15:56 Speaker 1: And you've got a good chance of playing up there at least at some point.

16:02 Speaker 3: But could they do something different? during the rookie camp and the two showcase games that would give the organization pause to say, well, maybe we should add them into the mix.

16:14 Speaker 1: My guess would be more that we're looking for Yawasin to move him up from Maine to Providence full-time. He wasn't full-time in Providence. I think for McKinnon, kind of the same thing, because this is a little bit of, Where do we shake you out? I don't think I, my personal opinion is either one is not developed enough. And remember, we're talking defense who develop a little bit later. Now, I'm also expecting that we're probably going to see Jacob Vandy then. He's new to the system. We did see him, obviously, at development camp.

16:47 Speaker 1: He is playing juniors for the OHL. He's somebody that I'm absolutely expecting to see this time around because he is available. Mm-hmm. and have him here. He is not likely going to be getting a job in Maine or in Providence yet. He will likely go back to his junior team, and that's appropriate. He should be as far as his development goes. But by the same token, it's nice for him to be able to get that experience to play with these players who are going to be playing professionally. or who has been playing professionally, this is going to be a great experience for him.

17:24 Speaker 1: He is one, you might remember him from development camp and even just switched to defense months ago. Oh, that's the guy.

17:31 Speaker 2: That's the guy.

17:33 Speaker 1: He has a great shot. Wasn't really a totally strong defenseman, but up until recently, wasn't even a defenseman. So I'm guessing we're going to see him at rookie camp, but I would be shocked if he got an invite to training camp.

17:46 Speaker 2: So one guy that I want to ask you about, because he was at rookie camp last year, and he actually did get an invite to regular camp, Ty Gallagher.

17:57 Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

17:58 Speaker 2: What's his situation?

18:01 Speaker 1: Ty ended up playing for Providence and a couple of games in Maine. So he's a fairly solid AHL player. The year before he was at, you might remember, he was the one who was at BU and then transferred over to Colorado College, was working on graduate work there, but remained eligible. So he only played 11 games with Providence the previous year. He did sign his ELC that year, played for Providence for a few games and did have some playoff experience with them.

18:29 Speaker 2: Is he even eligible for rookie camp at this point? He is.

18:33 Speaker 1: He's 23.

18:34 Speaker 2: So he is.

18:35 Speaker 1: So we may see him again this year. It wouldn't surprise me to see him again this year. He's got a two year deal with Providence. So he's going to be there. I liked him at Dev Camp last year. I liked him this year. He did have a really good prospects challenge last year. And at Providence in his 43 games. Now, again, he's defense. So when we look at that, we talked a little bit about the stay home defense, the offensive defense. And when we're looking at that, we're not going to see the same numbers that we're going to see from some of our offensive players.

19:05 Speaker 1: But he did have some goals.

19:06 Speaker 2: He had 13 assists.

19:08 Speaker 1: What I know, Maria, you love the plus minus number. I do like that number. And I do think when it comes to defense, it really does give us a better picture because their game is different. And he's a plus six, had 26 penalty minutes. So physical. But he does it cleanly. 26 minutes.

19:26 Speaker 3: Isn't troublesome or worrisome to me?

19:28 Speaker 1: No. No, agreed. But it's also shows that he's doing a little something to get himself into just a little trouble. Trouble. Yeah. Yeah. So I do like him a lot. I think he is someone who in the next year or two will probably get a shot. And he's going to either get the shot or he's going to be an AHL player. But when we look at what our defense is right now... Brene is a better defenseman right now than Gallagher. So Brene is going to get the chance over Gallagher, would be my thought. Now, then again, I would have thought that Brene would have gotten the shot over Aspero.

20:01 Speaker 1: But I think specifically what happened is they knew when they bring up Freddie Brene, they're bringing him up to keep him. I think with the Bassboro, it was, hey, we're filling this specific need. And then they said, wait a minute, look what's happening when you're on the ice. And he earned his spot and it was unexpected.

20:16 Speaker 2: Yeah. So do we have seven defensemen yet then on our list?

20:22 Speaker 1: We do not. So that's where I'm not sure who else we're going to get.

20:26 Speaker 3: Is it not beyond the realm of possibility that there may be a random invitation out there to someone who's been lurking about that the organization might want to take a look at?

20:38 Speaker 1: Yes. Rookie Camp does have invites in the same way Dev Camp does. When you're looking at rookie camp invites, these, though, are going to be players that we're looking at a little bit more seriously than maybe dev camp. Dev camp, again, I don't know who makes the decisions. Nobody asks me. But they cast a wider net. We get some players who are NCAA players who are playing with our current players who are in our pipeline. It's like, oh, well, look at this player from Quinnipiac. Well, that's because he's playing with our Quinnipiac player.

21:11 Speaker 1: So they cast that net in there to just get a better look. I think they're a little bit more intentional with the invites to rookie camp. And that's where you get some of these unsigned free agents. So it's going to be some of these younger unsigned agents. It might be that they had an ELC that expired. They may never have signed. They might have been drafted and just never signed. So kinds of players you're more likely going to see with an invite at rookie camp. But we had invites last year. We'll have, I think, more invites this year.

21:41 Speaker 3: Yes.

21:41 Speaker 2: Yes.

21:42 Speaker 1: It's actually a really exciting time. I talk a lot about how much I like looking at these prospects and these developing players because it's really fun to see it. But this, even though it makes for a difficult time to predict rookie camp, It's actually super exciting because it means our players are getting this really great path to development through the NCAA process. I do love what development they receive in the juniors without question. But, you know, me, some of the best players are juniors to NCAA to AHL and or NHL, depending.

22:16 Speaker 1: Now, there's a couple of players on the Bruins, the Providence Bruins roster that we might be at rookie camp. Oh, interesting. Yeah. We've got a bunch of forwards. We actually, defense-wise, we don't have as many that are young in Providence when we look past Gallagher and Brene.

22:35 Speaker 3: I don't know how the organization thinks, but if the Bruins organization is expecting either Harris or Brene to challenge for a spot, I would think they would be on the training camp roster.

22:49 Speaker 1: And that's where, yeah, and that's what I am expecting. But again, we've got a pretty, we're going to have a pretty robust team. Bruins at Boston training camp. So that's where they're going to have to be making some decisions. When we're looking at who's on the Boston Bruins right now for defense, we have this embarrassment of riches almost, like mostly bottom, but again.

23:08 Speaker 3: No, I was just going to say, I wouldn't call it riches quite yet.

23:12 Speaker 1: We have an embarrassment of numbers. We have quantity. Quality is yet to be determined. Quality is coming.

23:20 Speaker 2: Yep. And actually, the last thing I just want to throw out there before we totally put a bow on this kind of sad prediction, because we really have no idea what's happening here.

23:31 Speaker 1: Goalies.

23:31 Speaker 2: Last year, we saw Simon Zajcic play, and he did a phenomenal job. I'm assuming that he very likely will be invited. And then I'm going to guess Max Lundgren is the other goalie. Who's going to be present? Granted, at this point, Boston is set for goalies. It makes me a little sad that obviously these guys, whoever gets invited to rookie camp for goaltending, they're not going anywhere. But for at least Zajic, he could be making the point of saying, I should be your number one in Providence, I think, versus whoever else is going to be his tendy partner for this camp.

24:17 Speaker 2: just something to keep an eye on. Mary Beth, thank you as always.

24:23 Speaker 3: You've become our go-to for this aspect of content for our podcast, and it's very much appreciated. You certainly are very thorough and passionate. about your assessments and following them too throughout the course of the year. So we get our updates in our Discord as well. So another reason for you all to join our Discord and get insight in real time, so to speak. We hope that our listeners will enjoy the content and the education and the information. Make sure you like and subscribe. For more content and leave us a rating so that other Bruins fans are able to find us, you can support our podcast by joining our Patreon or following us on our socials at tape2tapemk and on Substack at tape2tapemk.

25:14 Speaker 3: substack. com. And folks, there's a lot of good written content on Substack contributed by both my co-host and our friend Mary Beth. So does anybody have any closing thoughts?

25:29 Speaker 2: Go bees.

25:30 Speaker 3: Go bees. Go Bruins.

25:31 Speaker 2: Go Bruins.