Bottom-6 Forward Group Starting To Look Awfully Crowded For Boston Bruins

There may not be as much opportunity for younger B's prospects to break through as originally thought prior to NHL free agency

The Boston Bruins front office made a lot of statements about NHL roster spots being ripe for the taking for young players around the time of the NHL Draft.

“There are some certain guys that are going to push for opportunity and there are several other younger guys that are eagerly awaiting that, and [this season] may just be the time that we have to do it,” said Don Sweeney prior to the NHL Draft and the open of free agency.

Plenty of names were mentioned whether it was Georgii Merkulov, Johnny Beecher, Fabian Lysell, Mason Lohrei, Marc McLaughlin, Jakub Lauko or Oskar Steen, who have shown varying levels of ability to hack it at both the NHL and AHL levels to this point. It seemed like at least a couple of them would play some kind of role, most likely in the bottom-6 forward group, on this coming season’s team after Taylor Hall was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks in a salary cap dump move for a pair of young RFA defensemen.  

But that was a few days before the official opening of unrestricted NHL free agency at the beginning of July.