Bruins sign Zach Senyshyn to one-year deal
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
The Boston Bruins and forward Zach Senyshyn have agreed to a one-year, two-way contract worth $700,000 at the NHL level, the Bruins announced Wednesday.
Senyshyn’s new deal comes after a 2019-20 season that featured two helpers in four NHL games, and seven goals and 16 points in 42 games with the P-Bruins. Overall, the 23-year-old Senyshyn has 33 goals and 66 points in 174 games with Providence over three seasons, and one goal (an empty-net goal) and two assists in six NHL games over two seasons.
“We were very excited for where Zach was, [and was] going through that stretch the last five, six weeks,” P-Bruins coach Jay Leach said in May. “I think we’ve talked about Seny quite a bit and sometimes I think — our staff included — you tend to forget how young some of these players are. He just turned 23. Players develop in different ways and on different timetables.”
And Leach believes we’re beginning to see that true development path play out for Senyshyn and the B’s.
“Seny was starting to score, was getting to the dirty areas and they were a heavy forechecking line,” Leach said. “He was finding an identity. I think we all would somewhat speculate that was his identity: Being a big guy that could get to places quick and get to the front of the net. It just seemed like he was starting to put it together. I saw speed, I saw a willingness to get to the net, I saw a willingness to be an F1 on the forecheck. And with that came some offensive opportunities and he started to cash in a bit.”
The No. 15 overall pick from the 2015 NHL Draft, Senyshyn is one of just two players from the 2015 first round yet to emerge as an NHL regular (Jakub Zboril is the other), and is entering a make-or-break training camp with Boston. A failure to crack Boston’s Opening Night lineup will see Senyshyn hit the waiver wire, where 30 other NHL teams could claim him for free. (Senyshyn’s two-way contract only applies to the financial aspect of his deal, not his waiver-eligibility.)
Senyshyn’s signing makes Jake DeBrusk the only remaining B’s restricted free agent in need of a new contract.