As we continue to muse on how the Vancouver Canucks might re-make their blue line this summer, Ben Kuzma
brings up Matt Bartkowski's name once again in today's edition of
The Province.
There was talk heading into the trade deadline that Canucks general manager Jim Benning had been kicking the tires on his former player from the Boston Bruins, who will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
The 26-year-old Bartkowski peaked during the 2013-14 season, when he posted 18 assists and a plus-22 rating with the Bruins. He dropped down the depth chart last season—even as Boston's blue line was decimated by injuries—and was listed as a healthy scratch for 17 games.
Here's Kuzma's summary of the yin and yang of Bartkowski:
At his best, the 6-foot-1, 196-pound Pittsburgh native is a smooth skater who aids the transition game by playing with poise and confidence while also engaging the opposition physically in his own zone. At his worst, he makes poor defensive puck decisions, doesn’t win board battles or loses position in front on his net.
As Kuzma points out, the Bruins brought in Bartkowski (as well as the much more reliable Dennis Seidenberg) from the Florida organization in 2010 at the recommendation of Boston's then-director of college scouting John Weisbrod, who's now Vancouver's vice president of player personnel.
It's unlikely that he'd be an impact player, and he is prone to making mistakes, but Bartkowski would help make Vancouver's blue line younger and would likely be relatively inexpensive to acquire.
With 24 points in 131 NHL games and his momentum on the downswing, Bartkowski's body of work doesn't exactly match up against Cody Franson's 169 points in 400 games—and Franson's just one year older. But with an a price tag that's probably closer to $1 million than $5 million, Bartkowski also carries a lot less risk if he's signed as a UFA.
Cole Cassels Scores to Push Oshawa to Memorial Cup Final
Cole Cassels opened the scoring for the Oshawa Generals in their 2-1 defeat of the Kelowna Rockets at the Memorial Cup tournament on Tuesday night. The goal is Cassels' fourth point in three games in the tournament, one point behind leaders Nick Merkley of Kelowna (an 18-year-old who will be eligible for this year's draft) and Cassels' teammate Michael Dal Colle, who was selected fifth overall by the New York Islanders last summer.
As well as Cassels has performed in the junior playoffs, I'll continue to advise caution when projecting his future. He's not an over-ager—he just turned 20 earlier this month—but keep in mind that many players from his 2013 draft class are well ahead of him in development, some of whom have already made significant impacts in the NHL.
If you skim through
this summary of the 2013 draft from HockeyDB.com, you'll see that 13 players from Cassels' draft year have already played more than 50 NHL games—including 2013-14 Calder Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon (who was the Memorial Cup MVP two years ago when he was still 17) and our own Bo Horvat, who's just one month older than Cassels.
Listed at 178 pounds on NHL.com, Cassels will almost certainly need to get bigger and stronger if he hopes to succeed with his feisty playing style at hockey's top level.
As I've said before—I love the competitive spirit that Cassels has shown this spring and the strides that he has taken this year. He has been an important part of Oshawa's playoff run and will have a chance to play for the big prize on Sunday—the Generals are already guaranteed a spot in the Memorial Cup final.
I hope we see great things from him over the summer at the development camp and the YoungStars tournament, but he'll almost certainly need some minor-league seasoning before he can make an impact at the NHL level. Rather than penciling him in as an immediate saviour for the Canucks, I think we're better off being patient—and pleased that a third-rounder looks like he has a legitimate shot of developing into an NHL player.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»