BOSTON — One of the more difficult aspects of this fall’s training camp for the Bruins is the limited amount of space for up-and-coming youngsters on the NHL roster.
Particularly on the back end, things are locked in with the season opener in Dallas still more than a week away. Even with John Moore and Kevan Miller both injured and unable to start the regular season, Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, Torey Krug, Brandon Carlo, Matt Grzelcyk and Connor Clifton are pretty much guaranteed the top six spots with NHL contracts, and Steve Kampfer would make the most sense as the seventh D-man at the NHL level given his ability to sit for long stretches of time before appearances.
That doesn’t leave a lot of room for a young defenseman like Urho Vaakanainen, who kind of struggled while playing a top-4 role in Boston’s 4-3 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden on Monday night. Vaakanainen didn’t look particularly smooth quarterbacking the top PP unit when given a chance with Krug out of the lineup, but it was the skating game where the 20-year-old didn’t put his best foot forward.
“I don’t think he skated well enough to skate people, to break out pucks. One of his strengths is his foot speed, and his defending with his foot speed. He got beat wide once tonight, that’s not typically his game [because] he’s pretty good that way. So, I thought his feet weren’t engaged tonight enough in the game,” said Bruce Cassidy of Vaakanainen, who posted four goals and 14 points in 30 games for the P-Bruins while also appearing in two games in Boston last season, sandwiched around several injuries. “The penalty kill goal, he got caught in the wrong side of that battle down low and that’s going to happen.
“Those are things that we can work with him on, but his feet need to be moving every night. I thought he could have been better in that area tonight, being a little bit more of a factor. I thought [Jakub] Zboril did a pretty good job that way, breaking out, getting up ice and supporting the rush. Not as much for Vaak tonight.”
That’s good news for a young D-man like Zboril who needs to really make an impact with the Bruins organization this season, but a bit of a disappointment for the 20-year-old Vaakanainen in a big development season for him.
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