Thoughts From Boston Bruins Development Camp, Day 2

BRIGHTON, MA – Here are some thoughts and observations from Day 2 of Boston Bruins Development Camp at Warrior Ice Arena on Tuesday morning.

• Impressed with Georgii Merkulov after watching him closely for a couple of days. His skill level is excellent even if he’s not really dominating the small area games when he’s out there, and it’s clear the creativity, hands, shot and passing vision are all very good. Equally impressed while talking to him off the ice. It’s clear he’s worked very hard on his English to be a possible NHL player and he has an engaging personality while easily talking about the things in his game that he needs to work on. That’s a good signing by the Bruins with a player that looks like he’s willing to develop his talent to make it to the NHL. He’s physically not very big and it remains to be seen how well his skill will translate, but he’s made a good impression at development camp.

• The best free agent invite to Boston Bruins development camp? It’s Riese Gaber, a 5-foot-8 dynamo right wing out of the University of North Dakota. He’s shifty, strong on his skates and has excellent offensive skills while finding seams through bigger, stronger opponents and is exactly the type of player that the Bruins need to start opening their doors to more as the NHL becomes more and more friendly to these types of players. He’s been impressive.

• London Knights defenseman Jackson Edward has made a favorable impression as well. He clearly has some things to work on, but he’s also been one of the most physical players in this camp, along with P-Bruins defenseman Jacob Wilson, and at one point on Tuesday caught everybody’s attention when he drilled fellow D-man prospect Frederic Brunet and nearly knocked him over the boards onto the benches during a 3-on-3 small area drill. Edward is living up to the physically nasty reputation he had when the B’s selected him.

• Players I liked from Day 2: Oskar Jellvik, Dans Locmelis, Andre Gasseau, Riley Duran, Tyler Paquette, Jackson Edward, William Worge Kreu, Mason Langenbrunner, Brandon Bussi and Phillip Svedeback, who made an excellent save at the end of the 3-on-3 games with the coach’s yelling “next goal wins!” The all-out battle save from Svedeback left it as a time game as the dev campers moved on to the next thing. It was telling about Svedeback to see that kind of competitiveness at practice.

This save came right at the end of 3-on-3 small area game after the coach’s were yelling “next goal wins!” Ended up in a tie because the goalie fought to stop the puck. Love to see that in practice https://t.co/w10BlDRJ1L

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) July 12, 2022

• Trevor Kuntar is a physical, strong player. And he has a nose for the net. You can see it clearly in battle drills against his peers. It also looks like the wheels are always turning for him during just about every drill he’s doing out there. It would stun me if he’s not an NHL player someday. You can already see it in his approach and the way he plays on the ice despite being far from the biggest guy out there.