New year presents new challenge for Bruins” Matt Poitras

If you were looking at Matt Poitras’ career development form afar, it would not be outlandish to think that a little time down in the Providence wouldn’t hurt him. In fact, it could even be best for him and his Bruin career in the long run.

Understandably, that is not how the 20-year-old Poitras is approaching this training camp.

“I want to be here,” said Poitras after the first on-ice of training camp on Thursday. “I want to be able to show that I belong here and that they don’t have a choice, that they have to keep me here.”

That is exactly what happened last season when the then teenager stuck in Boston after a very good training camp before shoulder surgery ended his season in January.

But the circumstances are different this year. Not only do the B’s have better center depth than they did at this time last year – Poitras, in fact, started out at wing on Thursday — the option of sending him to the AHL for development is now on the table. Last season, he would have had to have been returned to his junior team in Guelph if he did not make the Bruin roster. That would not have been best for his development.

But as good as his camp and early season performance were last season, Poitras hasn’t quite graduated from being a prospect yet.

“He caught us by surprise at some degree last year, and really until the injury was on target to stay with us. This year is a little different, where we have some options in terms of possibly playing some games in Providence,” said GM Don Sweeney. “His goal is to make the team and pick up where he left off. It might take a little bit of time for him to get reacclimated timing-wise and such. We have a lot of camp. That was one of the reasons why he and (Georgii Merkulov) and Fabian (Lysell) did not participate in the rookie camp (last weekend), because we have an extended period of camp with seven games and the Black-and-Gold game. So, I think there’s really ample opportunity to put them in situations to see if they’re going to be ready to handle a full load in the NHL and make our team.”

In Thursday’s practice, right wing Poitras was centered by Trent Frederic with Cole Koepke on the other side. While the long-term plan is to move him back to center at some point in his career – possibly even this year –coach Jim Montgomery said the reasons for trying Poitras at wing were two-fold. The first was he’s familiar with the position having played wing his entire 16-year-old season at Guelph before moving to center his next season.

“The second reason would be he’s an offensively gifted player,” Montgomery said. “You get to spend more time as a winger getting into the neutral zone and creating offense than you do as a center, especially with the way we play. It requires the center to do a lot of work down low. It takes away from your ability to extend your shifts and do something on offense.”

The eager-to-please Poitras showed no aversion to position switch.

“I’ve played wing in the past and I’m comfortable there,” said Poitras. “Obviously it’s a little bit less skating than center so it’s maybe reserving a bit more energy for playing offense, where I like to hold pucks down low and have more energy for that would be good. I’m ready to play wherever, whether it’s center or winger. It’s just wherever I fit in best.”

While he likes to play with the puck, as most offensive-minded players do, Poitras learned last year that, in the NHL, there is such a thing as holding onto it too long. He’d like to rectify that, and also put to work his added muscle he gained through his long rehab from shoulder surgery.

“For me, I think it’s just better decision-making around the red line and blue lines. You don’t always have to make a play,” said Poitras. “I was the guy last year who always wanted to hold on it and sometimes it would put me in a bad position to get hit and stuff like that. Also, I had a real long summer for me. I had three months where I was just lifting and not really skating. For me, it was just about putting on weight and lifting and not really having to worry about the hockey part. Then as the summer went on just gaining as many reps with pucks as possible. When you don’t skate for three months, some of that stuff goes away a bit.”

Poitras did not want to be sent to Guelph last year and he used that as motivation to stick in Boston. Going to Providence may not sound like the end of the world for a 20-year-old kid like Poitras, but that is not where he wants to be.

“There’s always pressure,” Poitras said. “Coming into camp this year is a different. Expectations are a bit different. I came in last year kind of expecting to go back to Guelph. This year, obviously I want to make the team, same as I did last year but obviously there’s different expectations. Obviously there’s pressure but I’m just going to come in and do my thing every day.”

Coaches and managers usually tell prospects that it’s “up to them” if they want to stick around with the big club. It’s not always true. But for a player like Poitras, who showed so much promise last season but is still green, that just might be the case.

Early lines, pairs

Lines and pairs on the first day of camp are not always reliable. But what we saw in Thursday’s sessions gave a hint of what we may see down the road. The expected trio of Pavel Zacha-Elias Lindholm-David Pastrnak was indeed the first line while Charlie Coyle centered Lysell and veteran tryout Tyler Johnson, with Brad Marchand no doubt replacing one of the wings whenever he’s deemed ready to join the team. The defense pairs were as expected as well: Nikita Zadorov-Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo and Mason Lohrei-Andrew Peeke.

Goalie added

Make of it what you will in light of the protracted Jeremy Swayman negotiations, but the B’s added another goalie to their camp roster, signing 30-year-old Kasimir Kaskisuo to a professional tryout contract. The 6-foot-2, 207-pound Finnish netminder has played 108 career AHL games with a 53-36-10 record, 2.68 GAA and .909 save percentage. With Laval last season, he was 7-4 with a 2.90 GAA and .909 save percentage. Kaskisuo participated in the second session on Thursday. He’s the sixth goalie in camp.

Originally Published: September 19, 2024 at 2:53 pm