Fabian Lysell knows what’s at stake this fall.
The 21-year-old winger has yet to earn a call-up to the NHL ranks so far in his promising career — some of that being a byproduct of rotten injury luck during the spring.
But that might change in 2024-25 for Boston’s top prospect.
Not only has the fleet-footed forward’s development garnered praise from his Providence coaches, but there’s a vacancy within Boston’s top-six grouping — one that should appeal to a player with Lysell’s high-end skillset.
And with the Bruins in desperate need of internal offensive production following the free-agent departure of Jake DeBrusk, Boston plans on giving Lysell every opportunity to try to take his claim for a fixed role in this reworked lineup.
“He’s visibly stronger,” Jim Montgomery said of his first impressions of Lysell. “You can see him wanting pucks more, going to get more pucks, and that’s what we want. He’s an offensively gifted player. We want the puck on his stick. He did a good job of competing for pucks and having the puck more.”
Had it not been for both a shoulder injury and concussion suffered near the tail-end of Providence’s season, Lysell likely would have logged at least a few games with Boston already.
“We were really excited about where he was tracking and had he continued along that path and stayed healthy, he would have gotten an opportunity up top like a lot of other guys did,” Don Sweeney said of Lysell in June. “Because he had played that well.”
