Why two of the Bruins’ top youngsters aren’t attending rookie camp, Prospects Challenge

When the Bruins dropped their 2024 rookie camp roster on Wednesday, a pair of names were noticeably missing from both the ice and the roster sheet: Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov.

Considered two of Boston's top young guns, and undeniable candidates to make this year's NHL roster, it was not so much that the duo aged out of the camp. But rather that the Bruins want to make sure they are truly 100 percent ready to go when things get underway at Warrior Ice Arena in a week.

"Yeah, I think when [NHL] camp opens, they want them extremely ready," P-Bruins head coach Ryan Mougenel said. "And not that their rookie camp wouldn't be that for them, but you can get dinged up a little bit. That's a little bit above me, so I'll leave it to that."

Boston's first-round pick in 2021, Lysell is coming off a season that featured 15 goals and 50 points in 56 games. The righty-shooting right wing was in line for a potential call-up prior to his injury, too, according to Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. And with two AHL years under his belt, and with 29 goals and 87 points in 110 games over that span, the Bruins view Lysell as ready to make a legitimate run for a spot.

"I just want to see him immerse himself in one-on-one battles, coming up with loose pucks," Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said of Lysell at the team's annual golf tournament on Thursday. "He is a gifted offensive player, and for gifted offensive players to have success they need the puck on their stick. And that's why I say he needs to win one-on-one battles. That's gotta be a focus: being really intent on getting the puck on your stick so you can do the things that you do well."

Merkulov, meanwhile, is coming off his best AHL season to date, with 30 goals and 65 points in 67 games for the P-Bruins. Merkulov did get a cup of coffee with Boston during the 2023-24 season, but failed to do much of anything for the club in a bottom-line role, and struggled to win faceoffs. Capable of playing both center and wing, the Russian-born Merkulov's usage out of the gate will be interesting to watch, as the Bruins have clearly stressed to him that he needs to be more of a complete player and not a pure scorer like he has been for the Black and Gold's minor-league squad.

"I expect those two to push as well," Mougenel said. "They both look fantastic and in great spirits and their mindset seems great. So, two fantastic players that I'm excited to see how they do in camp."

Even though they're still two weeks away from the official opening of training camp and even though one gigantic obstacle remains, Don Sweeney and the Bruins do appear to have a rough idea of what their roster — and that roster's lineup, for that matter — will look like to begin the 2024-25 season.

Everywhere but on the right side of their second line, anyway, with the vacancy to the right of Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle staring the club in the face this month and potentially beyond.

Considered Boston's two-way line, with their nightly matchup ranging from providing some secondary scoring to shutting down the opposition's top line, it's a hole that'll require some defensive know-how but also some scoring touch. The latter being of particular importance following an offseason that saw the Bruins opt for more defensive help in the towering Nikita Zadorov over another wing, and after the summertime departures of Jake DeBrusk (19 goals), Danton Heinen (17 goals), and even net-front plumber James van Riemsdyk (11 goals and 38 points).

And with the Bruins looking like a finished product (for now), here's an early look at some of the in-house candidates expected to fight for a chance to ride with the Marchand-Coyle duo out of the gate.

For two years now, Trent Frederic has been as dependable as it gets for Jim Montgomery. In fact, Frederic's probably been the closest thing that Montgomery has to a Swiss Army Knife. Frederic has rarely made a line worse, and has instead bolstered that trio with a rather unheralded scoring touch that's seen him post the 51st-best shooting percentage (14.4 percent) out of 250 NHL forwards with at least 200 shots on goal over the last two seasons. 

Frederic's also shown some growth in the defensive side of his game, and has at times looked more comfortable on the right side versus the left side, even as a lefty-shooting option. Perhaps most notably, however, is the fact that Frederic has experience playing with both Coyle and Marchand, both as a trio and as duos. 

Together for 51 minutes of five-on-five play a year ago, the Marchand-Coyle-Frederic line outscored their opponents 3-0 despite being outshot 26-21 and having an offensive-zone faceoff percentage of 37.84 percent. And if we go back to the start of the Montgomery era behind the bench, the Coyle-Frederic combo has played over 900 minutes of five-on-five action together, with the Bruins outscoring opponents 49-23 over that span.

I don't know about you, but when Brad Marchand talked about how a skill guy couldn't simply skate on his line just because he could dangle through three guys, I couldn't help but think of 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell. It was strikingly similar to comments made by Providence coach Ryan Mougenel in a midseason callout last year.

Things certainly changed for Lysell following that callout, and the 5-foot-10 Swedish wing finished his season with 15 goals and 50 points in 56 games for AHL Providence. Injuries reared their head for Lysell towards the end of the year, but it felt like a definite step forward for the polarizing wing, with Sweeney seemingly acknowledging that Lysell would've been in line for a look with the NHL club had he not been injured while Mougenel professed that Lysell is ready to push for an NHL gig.

"We forget how young Fabian is at times," Mougenel said during B's development camp back in July. "We had him as a 19-year-old and the maturity that he’s shown in his game has been great to see. It’s been two years for Fabian where the light started to go on really early on this year that —  you play well in your own end, it translates to offense.

"He’s such a special player.” 

Now, jumping from the AHL right into a top-six role is no easy feat (and it's something that realistically hasn't been done in Boston successfully since David Pastrnak in 2014-15), but has always been the play with Lysell. The thought has always been that he's a player that might be better when the lights are brighter and the opportunities are greater. That's reportedly rubbed some people the wrong way along the way, sure, but this would be an example of the kind of chance he's wanted. 

If the Bruins want to go with another proven fit, the versatile Morgan Geekie is a strong contender for the gig. 

In fact, Geekie was the second-most common linemate for Coyle and Marchand during the 2024 postseason behind Jake DeBrusk (and he's gone, so he's no longer an option), with over 27 minutes of even-strength action with the duo. The Marchand-Coyle-Geekie line also got some run during the regular season, with one goal on 18 shots in a 27-minute sample. 

This is probably the most 'no frills' second line that the Bruins could create, all things considered, but it might be exactly what they want given the forever-shifting nature of the line's responsibilities on a game-to-game basis. 

Geekie, meanwhile, is coming off what was a career year in 2023-24, with career-best marks in goals (17), assists (22), points (39), power-play points (12), shots (130), hits (137), and blocks (50). Geekie also averaged what was a career-high mark in nightly time on ice, with 15:25 per game, which was almost a full three minutes higher than his previous career high. 

A late-season surprise, Justin Brazeau definitely made the most of his NHL opportunity, with five goals and two assists in what was a 19-game run mostly spent on the Black and Gold's bottom-six forward grouping.

But one thing that became relatively common during Brazeau's season was an in-game promotion up the depth chart, often to the right of Marchand and Coyle on Boston's second line. The limited sample didn’t lead to anything otherworldly — the Bruins broke even in goals (1-1) and were outshot 6-2 in 7:40 of five-on-five time together — but it’s something that clearly can be a potential option. 

Now, so much of that has to depend on the jump that Brazeau can make after getting his feet wet in the NHL a year ago. Skating has always been the knock on the 6-foot-5 wing, but there were definite improvements in that regard from what we saw of him when he first joined the Bruins on AHL only deal. Brazeau's defensive chops could be an issue when it comes to making him an ideal fit for this line, but with an obvious emphasis on getting a little nastier this year (especially on their fourth line), Brazeau may need to move up the depth chart to earn regular playing time this season. 

I think the Bruins would love to find a way to get Georgii Merkulov on their roster out of the gate this season. I do think they realize they're close to 'use him or lose him' territory, and the preference would be to turn the found money of an NCAA signing and 2024 AHL All-Star into something at the NHL level. After all, Merkulov has very little left to prove in the minors after a season that included 30 goals and 65 points in 67 games for the P-Bruins, and 125 points in 142 total AHL games. 

But, with all that said, lining him up at right wing seems like an absolute longshot. Simply because he's never actually lined up at right wing at any point during his pro career, according to the numbers. 

Merkulov did have a rather uneventful cup of coffee with the Bruins last season, as they opted to utilize him in a fourth-line role, where he had three shots, a plus-1 rating, and averaged 10:35 over a four-game sample with Boston. 

It simply wouldn't be a Bruins training camp without a PTO candidate in the mix for the club. This year, that honor will go to Tyler Johnson, a player best known for his run with the Tampa Bay Lightning (and two Stanley Cups) prior to a three-year excursion with the tanking-beyond-belief Blackhawks.

A player who can play both wing and center, though he plays the former a lot more than the latter these days, the 34-year-old Johnson put up 17 goals and 31 points for the Hawks a year ago, with that offensive output standing out as his best since the 2018-19 season. He did the bulk of that damage on the power play, but it's worth also worth noting that Johnson was top-five among Chicago forwards when it came to defensive-zone starts and defensive-zone faceoffs, meaning that he was someone that the Blackhawks leaned on all over the ice. 

Of course, Johnson would have to show out in training camp and earn a contract, which could be difficult given the logjammed nature of this roster as is, but it's worth wondering if the Bruins give him a try in that RW2 spot.