Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins Prospect Lysell Dazzles in Sweden Win
It’s only been a couple of games into his World Juniors experience for this season, but Boston Bruins prospect Fabian Lysell is putting on dazzling display what all the hype is about. The 19-year-old Swedish winger had a solid opening game with one assist in victory, but really dazzled in Friday’s second preliminary game, a 6-0 win for Sweden over Austria at the IIHF World Junior championships in Edmonton.
Lysell started things off by setting up a power play goal with a slick pass cross-ice pass while showing off some very good passing skills during the last couple of games.
that is an absolute dime from Fabian Lysell #nhlbruins pic.twitter.com/1X5fdtZtvt
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 12, 2022
Then the speedy Swede tacked on to the final score with this bad angle snipe under the crossbar that got Boston Bruins fans buzzing on social media.
Bruins prospect Fabian Lysell with the bad angle snipe. Better today than in his first game for Team Sweden, but he’s been very noticeable in both games thus far pic.twitter.com/FFp7QH5Wo3
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) August 12, 2022
In case that wasn’t impressive enough, here’s another angle to show just how sick that Lysell snipe actually was given what he was looking at moving to the net.
Fabian Lysell 🚨 #JVM #WorldJuniors #NHLBruins
🎥 SVT Play pic.twitter.com/ttYZFvuw2d— SwehockeyGIFs (@swehockeygifs) August 12, 2022
Lysell finished with the goal and two points in the win over Austria and now has three points in two World Junior games as Sweden is off to an undefeated start in pool play for the world championships.
Lysell finished with four shots on net and a plus-1 rating in 14:36 of ice time and was also stopped on a penalty shot before scoring his goal later in the contest. Through it all, the B’s first round pick impressed onlookers like color analyst Craig Button with his offensive instincts and willingness to merge hard work with the obvious skill and skating game he’s bringing to the table.
Good shift here from Bruins prospect Fabian Lysell during todays Sweden/Austria game pic.twitter.com/PSH3DIeQMp
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) August 12, 2022
The real interesting question, at this point, is what chance Lysell has of cracking Boston’s NHL roster out of training camp as he heads to North America to play either at the AHL or NHL level this season following a standout WHL season with the Vancouver Giants last year (22 goals, 62 points in 53 games) while adjusting to the smaller North American rinks.
Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney wasn’t ruling anything out when it came to Lysell potentially playing in the NHL this upcoming season as David Pastrnak did in his first pro season after he was drafted in the first round, but the same kind of defensive and strength challenges that Pastrnak faced await this 5-foot-10, 172-pounder as well.
“There’s always a chance that a younger player can make the team. I referenced David Pastrnak a number of years ago and [that he] spent some time in Providence and came back from the World Juniors and went in and played and played well. It was hard to keep him off [the NHL roster], whether or not he’s physically ready to play at that level, and maybe Fabian will be the exact same way. Johnny Beecher or Marc McLaughlin, whoever is going to be there, the opportunities going to be there,” said Sweeney, speaking about a number of young B’s prospects vying for NHL jobs. “[Jack] Studnicka and [Oskar] Steen, guys that are pretty in time [for NHL opportunities] – Jakub Lauko is another one. I mean, we’re not going to hold the best players off our team. We may have time where we can buy some time [in the AHL], when a player, if they’re not waiver-eligible and such, but ultimately, we want to play the best players.
“So if Fabian comes in and stands out to the point, we feel he’s ready, then that’s fine. But we don’t need to rush things with any of our young players. Put them in an opportunity, allow them to see if they can succeed.”
The Boston Bruins have multiple prospects flourishing on the World Juniors stage as Riley Duran is off to a nice start for Team USA as well in the tournament, and 2022 fourth rounder Dans Locmelis scored for Latvia on Friday night as well.
LATVIA STRIKES FIRST!
Dans Locmelis buries the rebound to give his team a 1-0 lead 🔥
🔗: https://t.co/eJN1i95a5Spic.twitter.com/sHiqxvyc7R
— Elite Prospects (@eliteprospects) August 12, 2022