Quiet First Day For Boston Bruins Prospects At World Juniors

It wasn’t a big deal kind of day for the Boston Bruins prospects at the first day of the 2023 IIHF World Junior championships, but it was still a good showing for both Sweden’s Fabian Lysell and Dans Locmelis for Team Latvia.

Best of luck to #NHLBruins prospects Fabian Lysell 🇸🇪 and Dans Locmelis 🇱🇻 as they begin their @WorldJuniors journeys today! pic.twitter.com/tkpDvd2Jay

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 26, 2022

The 18-year-old Latvian center didn’t have any points in a loss to Team USA, but finished with 18:54 of ice time, a shot on net and was a minus-1 in the competitive 5-2 loss for Latvia where the UMass hockey-bound forward finished with 24 shifts for the game.

Lysell, who left the Providence Bruins in his first AHL season to play for Sweden, had four shots on net and finished a plus-1 in 16:04 of ice time, but didn’t factor in with any points in an 11-0 blanking of Team Austria for the Swedes. Lysell did draw several penalties with the breathtaking speed and skill that made him a first round pick and has him sitting atop the Boston Bruins prospect rankings.

He also managed to accomplish this, which could be considered a skill.

Oh Lysell opening a water bottle with his teeth pic.twitter.com/G3OT3Aj0wl

— Hannah (@babybergy37_) December 26, 2022

But those attributes did not translate into numbers on the score sheet for Lysell in the opening blowout win for Sweden.

It’s an interesting time for Lysell as some Boston Bruins fans are worried he might become a trade target if the B’s wanted to make a big splash like trading for Patrick Kane ahead of the NHL trade deadline, but the chances are slim-to-none that the Bruins are going to part with a future game-breaker like Lysell with the future uncertain for impending unrestricted free agent David Pastrnak.

The 19-year-old Lysell has eight goals and 19 points in 20 AHL games for the Providence Bruins this season along with a plus-1 rating, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see him up at the NHL level at some point if injuries, or circumstances, create an NHL roster opening for the Black and Gold.