Although he has yet to appear in an NHL game, the Swedish product is staring at a golden opportunity to make his mark with the Bruins next season.
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Fabian Lysell has logged zero games in the NHL.
Given the 21-year-old winger’s lack of reps at hockey’s highest level, it might be odd for one of Boston’s top prospects to shoulder such high expectations for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
But be it Lysell’s own tantalizing high-end talent or the top-six vacancy currently present in the forward corps, the Swedish product is staring at a golden opportunity to make his mark with the Bruins.
Based on comments from the top brass, the Bruins are planning on giving him every chance to seize a spot up front.
“Just pin your ears back, train your [butt] off this summer, and come with the intent that there’ll be an opportunity here,” general manager Don Sweeney said of Boston’s next crop of young skaters like Lysell and Georgii Merkulov. “If you’re the best player, then we’ll find a way to get you in the lineup. You have to sustain it as you’re going along. … Those guys should have clear intentions to come and find an opportunity to beat somebody out because it’ll be there.”
Of course, cracking the lineup over the last few years is easier said than done.
Even during this upcoming training camp, promising bottom-six candidates like Riley Duran and Trevor Kuntar are staring at an uphill climb when it comes to fighting for minutes with Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie, Matthew Poitras, Johnny Beecher, Max Jones, Mark Kastelic, and Justin Brazeau.
But further up the lineup, the opportunity is there for Lysell to carve out a spot in a featured, top-six role.
Even though Boston landed two of the top free agents on the market
in Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, Jake DeBrusk inking a seven-year contract with the Canucks on July 1 left a significant vacancy on the wing.
While the Bruins weren’t going to realistically be in the mix for a star talent like Steven Stamkos after signing both Lindholm and Zadorov, the decision to not add another potential scoring winger on a more affordable deal like Anthony Duclair ($3.5 million AAV with Islanders) or Daniel Spring ($975,000 with Vancouver) was an interesting move, given the need for more scoring punch up front.
As far as possible top-six candidates, the Bruins could opt for an internal promotion with an established NHLer like Geekie or Frederic.
But Lysell could make life a whole lot easier for Boston if he takes a major step forward this fall, giving the Bruins a skilled talent (on a cheap deal) who can inject some offense up top and keep Geekie and Frederic further down the lineup.
Such a scenario would involve Lysell actually making the jump up to the NHL ranks.
Based on Sweeney’s comments before the 2024 NHL Draft, it appears Lysell was on track to get his first taste of NHL action last season before getting sidelined with a concussion in March.
Even though Sweeney acknowledged that Lysell wasn’t “100 percent comfortable” upon returning to play with Providence during the Calder Cup Playoffs, the winger still managed to put together a strong season in the AHL. He recorded 15 goals and 50 points over 56 games.
“We were really excited about where he was tracking and had he continued along that path and stayed healthy, he would have gotten an opportunity up top like a lot of other guys did,” Sweeney said of Lysell. “Because he had played that well.