Boston Bruins assign Matt Poitras to Team Canada for 2024 IIHF World Juniors
Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced that the team will assign forward Matt Poitras to Team Canada for the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Poitras has appeared in 27 games for the Bruins this season, recording five goals and eight assists tallying 13 points.
“I haven’t talked with (Don Sweeney),” Montgomery told reporters. “I think Hockey Canada’s reached out. But we’re not making a decision right now.”
The tournament begins on Dec. 26 in Gothenburg, Sweeden and it will run through Jan. 5. Poitras could miss up to nine games depending on how far Team Canada travels in the tournament.
Poitras sat out Friday night’s game against the New York Islanders due to what the team called scheduled maintenance.
“As planned,” coach Jim Montgomery said of Poitras’ absence. “With the maintenance plan we’ve put in place for him for load management.”
Poitras has struggled recently on the ice for the Bruins. On Dec. 9 against the Coyotoes, he was scratched the entire third period of the game. The Bruins are already without Pavel Zacha, who was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Poitras played a career-low 8:26 of ice time.
This isn’t the first time the Bruins have allowed a top prospect with NHL experience to play in the tournament. The Bruins let David Pastrnak participate in the tournament in 2015. Fabian Lysell played last season despite no NHL games.
“I’ve been around the World Juniors since 1989; it doesn’t stifle players, it only helps them,” longtime NHL analyst and co-host of ‘The Eye Test Podcast’ Pierre McGuire said.
“If you watch Matt Poitras play right now, he’s not nearly comfortable enough playing in an NHL environment. He’s not strong enough on the puck; he’s not strong enough on the backcheck; he used to dominate the puck below the hash marks, but he’s not doing that anymore, and you can see defensively, he’s getting pushed around; he’s getting roughed up.”
Poitras might need the mental break from the NHL and the Juniors tournament might be what he needs to get back on track.
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