Bruins development camp notebook: Poitras bulking up, Letourneau first impressions and more

The Bruins held their annual development camp this week at Warrior Ice Arena, concluding with a Fourth of July scrimmage Thursday morning.

As Bruins management and staff say every year, this is truly a “development” camp and not an “evaluation” camp. No one is trying out for a roster spot just yet. That will come in rookie camp and training camp in September.

This week was more about skills work, checking in, and putting training and nutritional plans in place for the rest of the summer.

For us in the media, it’s also a good time to catch up with prospects and team staff. With that in mind, here are some takeaways from the week:

Matt Poitras is back and bulking up

There was only one player at development camp who has played NHL games: Matt Poitras. Normally a player with Poitras’s resume would have graduated out of development camp, but for Poitras, there was value in taking part this week as he continues to rehab from his season-ending shoulder surgery.

The 20-year-old Poitras underwent that surgery in early February and was given a five-month recovery time. I’ll save you the math: He’s now right at five months. So, how is he feeling?

“I’m feeling good. My shoulder’s feeling good,” Poitras said. “Doing everything, shooting, I feel good. There’s no pain or anything.”

Poitras, like just about every young player, is working on getting stronger this offseason and has already put on eight or nine pounds. In his case, the need to do that is a little more urgent. He is expected to be with the big club once again, currently penciled in for third-line center duties to start. And this time, the hope is that he’ll hold up physically for a full NHL season and not require the load management plan the Bruins had him on last year even before his injury.

“I needed to put on a bit of size,” Poitras said. “I came into camp last year definitely undersized. There were some bigger guys that maybe I couldn’t hold my own against as much.  So I think this year is just going in a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, kind of choose my spots a bit more, because sometimes I’d take some big hits that are unnecessary and kind of hurt me and maybe that’s why I didn’t get a chance to finish the season.”

Poitras had 15 points in the 33 games he did play last season, a 37-point pace over 82 games. Just staying healthy and keeping up that pace would be valuable for a Bruins team that needs to improve offensively, but if he can also bump that production rate up a little, it would be a big plus for Boston.

Poitras sat out Thursday's camp-ending scrimmage, but only because the Bruins didn't want to push things when it came to taking contact. There was not setback or anything. Poitras should be fully cleared for contact well ahead of training camp in September.

First impressions of Dean Letourneau

At the other end of the experience spectrum from Poitras were the Bruins’ four 2024 draft picks – Dean Letourneau, Elliott Groenewold, Jonathan Morello and Loke Johansson – all of whom were in attendance for their first taste of life in the Bruins organization.

With all due respect to the latter three, whom you can read about here , the main attraction in this class is Letourneau, the 6-foot-7 Boston College-bound center who was the Bruins’ first first-round pick in three years.

So, what kind of first impression did Letourneau make? There was the obvious, summed up perfectly by Poitras, who was actually Letourneau’s roommate for the week.

“He’s a big dude,” Poitras said with a laugh.

Bruins player development coordinator Adam McQuaid, who helps run development camp, was able to provide a little bit more of an in-depth scouting report.

“It’s hard not to notice him at his size,” McQuaid said of Letourneau. “You notice his calmness around the net. Smooth, good hands. Just a big frame. But when you look at him, he’s still such a young kid. He’s a young guy that has a ton of potential, so it’ll be nice to have him close by and we’ll get to see him lots. The group at BC has done a good job with our guys and other guys, so he’s going to a good spot. Again, another kid who’s just really eager to learn. I’m excited to see where he can get to.”

From my perspective, the positives of the week for the 18-year-old Letourneau were that he looked really good with the puck on his stick, during both the technical stickhandling drills and player vs. player competition. He knows how to protect it, he has almost surprisingly soft hands, and he can rip off a hard, accurate shot in close and from distance.

On the other hand, he stumbled during a couple skating drills (that might sound odd, but these are highly technical drills and it’s not that unusual for young players who haven’t spent a ton of time with a professional skating coach yet) and lost some battles that he’ll be expected to win as he continues to learn how to optimize his size.

Letourneau knows he has room for improvement there.

“I think just getting stronger, kind of using my weight a little more and playing to my size,” he said when asked what he wanted to focus on this summer and this upcoming season.

Letourneau got to meet a couple of his future BC teammates this week, as Oskar Jellvik and Andre Gasseau were also at Warrior. It’s possible that all three Bruins prospects could end up on the same line for the Eagles.

Jellvik and Gasseau were linemates already last season with now-Anaheim Duck Cutter Gauthier as their center. BC lost its top two centers from last season in Gauthier and Will Smith. James Hagens, the potential No. 1 overall pick next summer, is expected to fill the top spot between talented sophomores Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard. The second-line center job appears to be there for the taking if Letourneau is able to grab it.

Oskar Jellvik, and who could make a ‘Jellvik-like jump’ this year

Speaking of Jellvik, the 2021 fifth-round pick really took a big step forward as a sophomore this past season. After posting 17 points in 34 games as a freshman in 2022-23, the 21-year-old left wing went over a point per game in 2023-24 with 42 points (13g, 29a) in 41 games.

“Just being able to play at the pace that college is,” Jellvik said when asked what led to the year-over-year improvement. “Just getting acclimated to how fast the game is being played at the college level and just play fast yourself. So just playing faster, I guess.”

The challenge this year will be to continue to produce like that without Gauthier, a true blue-chip talent, as his center. McQuaid has reason to believe Jellvik will be able to do that.

“He may have had one of the best growth seasons of the group,” McQuaid said of Jellvik. “It was a big transition coming over the first year, smaller ice, little things like that. But I think his consistency was the main thing. Like, he played well on a nightly basis. … Obviously Gauthier is a really good player, but so is Oskar. I don’t doubt that he can replicate what he did this year coming in next year.”

McQuaid is also hopeful that another Bruins prospect in Hockey East – UMass’ Dans Locmelis – will be able to make the same kind of jump Jellvik made from his freshman to sophomore year. Locmelis, a 20-year-old center who was a fourth-round pick in 2022, had 14 points (7g, 7a) in 30 games as a freshman, but also had to deal with a delayed start to the season due to eligibility issues resulting from the fact that he played two professional games in Sweden.

“Dans is another guy that, coming over, it’s just an adjustment,” McQuaid said. “…A little later getting going, and ideally that’s not the case. He’s a guy that I can see potentially having that Jellvik-like jump from one year to the next. I think he’s gonna have a great season.”

Fabian Lysell ready to push?

The Bruins’ last first-round pick prior to Letourneau, Fabian Lysell, was not at development camp. That’s not a surprise considering the 21-year-old right wing has already played two AHL seasons. No other Boston prospect with that much professional experience was there either.

Providence Bruins coach Ryan Mougenel was there, though, and he was still happy to talk about Lysell when asked. Mougenel made some headlines in December when he publicly criticized Lysell for not buying into playing a team game, but he said Wednesday that he saw that buy-in in the second half, echoing the sentiments of Don Sweeney, who said last week that Lysell likely would have been called up to Boston late in the season if not for head and shoulder injuries suffered in March.

“Fabe had huge steps this year,” Mougenel said. “We forget how young Fabian is at times. We had him as a 19-year-old. 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, and he's a special kid. And all these offensive gifted players, they have some sort of deficiency, especially defensively, and I think he’s really starting to come along. I think he's gonna push. He's a super proud kid. He works, he's inquisitive, he wants to learn.”

The Bruins would love to see Lysell make that push come September. The roster as currently constructed has a glaring hole at second-line right wing, one that Lysell could fill if he’s ready to make the jump.

Riley Duran ‘a little bit ahead’ of what Bruins expected

Sweeney acknowledged that “gap” up front after he chose to prioritize defenseman Nikita Zadorov over a middle-six wing in free agency. His hope is that an open competition for an NHL job produces a solution.

Lysell was one name Sweeney mentioned. Georgii Merkulov, coming off an impressive 65-point AHL season, was another. The third name out of his mouth was a little surprising: Riley Duran, the team’s 2020 sixth-round pick.

“I would say to Merk or Fabian or Riley Duran, keep going down the list: Just pin your ears back, train your ass off this summer, and come with the intent that there will be an opportunity here,” Sweeney said. “If you're the best player, then we find a way to get you in the lineup. … Those guys should have clear intentions to come and find an opportunity to beat somebody out, because it'll be there.”

Whereas Lysell and Merkulov both have two full AHL seasons under their belt at this point, Duran, a Woburn native who can play center or wing, played just 15 games for the P-Bruins (11 regular season, 4 postseason) this spring after turning pro following his junior season at Providence College.

Mougenel was impressed with what he saw in that short time, though, and understands why it caught Sweeney’s eye.

“Super pleased,” Mougenel said of Duran. “For us, the process probably got expedited a little bit just because we had some call-ups and he got put in a role with Patrick Brown, and he was awesome. So for me, to be transparent, I think he was a lot better than what I was expecting. And not saying that I have a different standard, but we were really surprised at how well his game had grown and how confident he was in the American League. He was absolutely excellent for us. And for me, it's probably a little bit ahead of where I probably think he would be at this time.”

Duran, 22, did not put up big point totals in college. In fact, his 16 points (9g, 7a) in 35 games as a junior was actually the lowest total of his three seasons with the Friars. That would suggest that if he has any NHL future at all, it would likely be as a fourth-line grinder, but Mougenel believes there is more offensive skill that can be tapped into.

“I think his skill set surprised us the most probably,” Mougenel said. “I thought he was more of, a little bit of grind in him, which he has. But his skill set, his hands, his speed, his separation, his willingness to get inside. We put him in a lot of different spots. He played special teams. And we recognize, too, that's a tough time of the year to come in for most college players or junior players, coming in when things get ramped up a little bit. He excelled at that. We're very pleased with him.”

A ‘soft spot’ for Jackson Edward

A player worth watching in Providence this season will be defenseman Jackson Edward, who is turning pro after three OHL seasons with the London Knights. Edward was a seventh-round pick in 2022 after recording just six points in his first OHL season, but he has shown more upside than that over the last two years.

Serving as an alternate captain this past season, Edward helped lead the Knights to the Memorial Cup championship game, where they ultimately fell to Saginaw. The 20-year-old left shot had 30 points and a plus-43 rating in 59 regular-season games, followed by 11 points and a plus-17 in 15 playoff games. His physicality and occasional over-use of it continued to show up with 92 penalty minutes in the regular season and 34 in the playoffs.

Sweeney had high praise for Edward last week and said he was a player McQuaid had a “soft spot” for given that Edward plays a bit like McQuaid did.

“You want to talk about the growth year over year in the last couple years. On and off the ice, Jackson’s handled a lot of adversity,” Sweeney said, likely referencing at least in part to the death of London teammate Abakar Kazbekov in Dec. 2022.

“He’s a real gamer. Adam’s got a real soft spot for Jackson. Obviously a similar ilk of player. Just a lot of growth and opportunity. He’s got a lot of bite to his game, plays both sides. I think he’s going to really take leaps and bounds in terms of getting into the pro game, maintaining structure in his game while allowing that bite and natural competitiveness to continue to bubble to the surface. A great, great kid that we’re excited to have as a Boston Bruin this year.”

McQuaid smiled when asked about Sweeney’s “soft spot” comment on Tuesday.

“I love Eddie’s competitiveness and his willingness,” McQuaid said. “He’s still pretty raw, so there’s still a lot of development and room for him to grow. I’m looking forward to him turning pro and us getting to have our hands on him more daily. Just a good kid who’s been really resilient in his life. He’s an easy kid to root for.”

Jonathan Myrenberg staying in Sweden, for now

Another interesting defense prospect who was at Warrior is Jonathan Myrenberg, a 21-year-old rated as the top right-shot defense prospect in the organization by The Athletic .

We haven’t gotten to see much of Myrenberg around here, because he hasn’t played in North America. He has spent all of his developmental years in his home country of Sweden to this point, but he has been getting valuable experience playing against pros, including spending all of last season playing for Linkoping in the SHL, Sweden’s top professional league.

Myrenberg, who was acquired in 2022 along with goalie Michael DiPietro in the trade that sent Jack Studnicka to Vancouver, registered 11 points in 50 games last season and was a plus-7, which was the fourth-best mark on the team.

“I felt like I took a big step this year,” Myrenberg said Wednesday. “I wasn’t sure what to expect coming up from Allsvenskan to the SHL, but I feel like I took that step well. I actually played better than I thought I would, so it was a great year for me.”

Myrenberg is 6-foot-3, good defensively, can move the puck, and looked like one of the more poised, in-control players at development camp this week. He certainly has the tools to potentially play in the NHL one day.

The question is whether we’ll ever see Myrenberg play for the Bruins. His draft rights expire on June 1, 2025, so they would have to sign him before then.

Myrenberg said on Wednesday that he is definitely returning to Sweden for this coming season and that he will make a decision on his future after that. Linkoping’s season ended in late March this year, so that would leave the Bruins and Myrenberg roughly two months in spring 2025 to either work out a contract or part ways.

For what it’s worth, there isn’t any reason to believe that there’s any tension between the two sides. The SHL is a great league to develop in, and Myrenberg said he keeps up good communication with both McQuaid (mostly by video) and Bruins European scouting coordinator P.J. Axelsson (in person) during the season.

“It’s mostly P.J. and Quaider. Get some videos, get some feedback from time to time. So, it’s all good,” Myrenberg said. “Quaider came to visit me last year. I talk to P.J. sometimes. So, I also get that face-to-face contact.”

McQuaid said the Bruins like what they see from Myrenberg, and that it was great to have him in for development camp to get more face-to-face time than they get during the season.

“We don't get as much face-to-face time, so it's always great when I'm able to get over and see him play live, but also just to have a bit of interaction face-to-face,” McQuaid said Thursday. “Continuing to watch him, his details, he's getting harder defensively, which has been really nice to see. In transition, he's great. He sees the ice so well. He's really smooth out there. So yeah, it can be a little more challenging just because of the distance, but being able to watch the game, send video, and weeks like this are important to be able to continue to build that relationship so it's not just someone on the other side of a zoom call or text message. So, that's why weeks like this are important.”