Jake DeBrusk looks to continue to take the next step in his development this season
The Bruins will drop the puck on the new season Wednesday night without Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Taylor Hall. The new look Bruins are equipped with a younger core or inexperience players. Part of that young core is forward Jake DeBrusk and the Bruins will need the 26-year-old to continue to move forward in his development.
DeBrusk enters this season in the final year of his contract but has expressed wanting to remain in Boston longterm. General manager Don Sweeney told reporters on Monday that talks between the team and DeBrusk are “ongoing discussions.”
DeBrusk had one of his best offensive seasons lat year, scoring 27 goals and added 23 assists. Unfortunately, a fractured leg suffered during the Winter Classic derailed a massive portion of his season.
With the loss of Bergeron, Krejci and Hall, Boston is in need of some offensive fire power. DeBrusk has the ability to score 30 goals and help pace the Bruins offense.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters that DeBrusk has carried himself with a “quite confident swagger” during the preseason.
“I like to joke around and obviously it’s very serious,” DeBrusk told reporters, including MassLive. “Especially this time of year with guys fighting for roster spots. But I always thought I was more comfortable if I saw a veteran guy — not struggle — but if he made a mistake, kind of like just get through it. Everything is gonna be fine. I’ll just be better the next shift. It can’t get much worse than that. I kinda laugh about it. It’s easy to do that when you feel comfortable and you’ve had success.”
DeBrusk will be one of the most important players on the ice for the Bruins outside of Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. If he can take that confident swagger and develop into a consistent 25-plus goal scorer, he will be a major piece of the new look Bruins.
“But I think the silent swagger is from my personal experiences of: I’ve had it where I haven’t had that belief. I’ve had it where I’ve had to walk on eggshells in different ways. And trying to find my game again — just to try to play the game of hockey that I played since I’ve been a kid and not knowing if it was ever gonna come back, and then getting it back. It’s one of those things where I’ll always have confidence in myself because you need it, but it’s hard to have it permanently, in a sense. Obviously, it’s not gonna be pretty every time. There’s gonna be different things. But I like to joke about it because there is worse things out there.”
Boston could have as much as $25 million in cap space next offseason with the cap ceiling as high as $87 million. Another strong season by DeBrusk will earn him a multi-year deal and another piece for Sweeney to build around as the Bruins build a new contender in the Eastern Conference.
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