Boston Bruins Development Continues To Falter With Forward Anders Bjork To AHL
Just a year ago the Boston Bruins were the hot young team that made the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs with a roster filled with hope and promise with youth starting to fill up the rankings.
Unfortunately this season it feels like the organization has taken a step back with many of the young prospects failing to pan out despite massive heaps of praise and hype from both the organization and the fan base. The latest disappointing news came on Thursday when Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney announced that forward Anders Bjork was being assigned to the AHL Providence Bruins.
The 22-year-old skated in 20 games with Boston this season and could only scrummage together one goal and two assists for three points. Bjork had a rather solid debut season in 2017-18 where he skated in 30 games for Boston notching four goals and 8 assists for 12 points with a plus-two rating. Bjork was drafted in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft and signed an entry level contract with Boston back on May 30, 2017 after coming out of Notre Dame where he played for three seasons racking up 40 goals and 69 assists for 109 points in 115 games.
Certainly a disappointing start to Bjork’s career among other young Bruin skaters who have also had a rather rough and slow start to their NHL careers. Plenty of time to turn things around but for the moment it looks like a step back for the Boston Bruins who are currently sitting in the first Wild Card spot and are currently 5 pts back of the Tampa Bay Lightening for the 3rd spot in the Atlantic and 6 points behind the first place Buffalo Sabres.
As for Bjork, he will likely be back up at some point in the near future. It likely would have been more beneficial for him to have started the year in the AHL to begin with. And ultimately it feels like that has been a bit of an issue for Boston as of late having rushed many of their players up to the NHL level either do to injuries or the false sense of readiness.
