Lauzon fights long odds to stay
Defensive depth chart daunting
Teenagers make the NHL all the time these days. Tightening of the obstruction rules and the advent of the salary cap forcing teams to look for cheap talent on entry level contracts over a decade have made the league a friendlier place for high-end young talents. Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko look to be this year’s models.
But for most prospects, the climb to the NHL can still be slow and uncertain.
Sometimes advancement is naturally slow as a young man builds his strength up and hones his skill through his late teens and early 20s. In other cases, a stacked NHL roster serves to keep a youngster on the farm for an extra year or so.
For a player like Jeremy Lauzon, the latter is certainly becoming an issue. Lauzon got a taste of the NHL last year when he played 16 games for the Bruins, mostly early in the season when they were dealing with a number of injuries on defense. He acquitted himself well as a steady, mostly stay-at-home defenseman. In another situation, the next logical step would be making the varsity roster on his own merit.
But a quick look at the preseason depth chart shows that making the B’s roster isn’t getting any easier. On the left side, Lauzon’s strong side, there are Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and Matt Grzelcyk. On the right, Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo will hold down the top two spots while Connor Clifton and Steve Kampfer battle it out for playing time on the third pair. The injured John Moore (left) and Kevan Miller (right) will be added to the mix at some point.
And if the pipeline already looks a little clogged from Lauzon’s vantage point, he is also battling a couple of firstrounders, Urho Vaakanainen and Jakub Zboril (also lefties), to be next in line.
It might be daunting for a young player but Lauzon, whose competitiveness is one of his best on-ice qualities, is not discouraged.
“The competition inside this organization is just incredible and I’m really happy to be a part of it,” said the 22-year-old Lauzon, one of the B’s three secondround picks in the 2015 draft. “I’m just trying to concentrate on myself. I just try to play my best every practice. Every game, I’ll try to perform at my best and really just concentrate on myself. If I start looking at other players, there are a lot of good players here. I know that, and I think I’m a part of it.”
While conceding that this year’s roster will be tough to crack, coach Bruce Cassidy only has to point at last year to keep a glimmer of hope alive for the players on the outside looking in.
“We talk to those young guys about that,” Cassidy said. “You look at last year and you hope they’ve paid attention and realize we used a lot of guys. Who would have thought that Connor Clifton would have been the guy in the Stanley Cup Final? I think that should be enough of a motivating factor to know it might not be there on Oct. 3, but certainly the opportunity would be there (at some point).”
For players who have to go to Providence, Cassidy said the goal should be to make themselves the first call-up. But he also didn’t completely rule out one of the younger defensemen forcing his way into the mix, especially with Moore and Miller not ready to play.
“There could be some opportunity if you look at Grizz with Kampfer or Clifton and you wanted a bigger body,” Cassidy said. “That’s where Lauzon might have to say ‘You know what? Maybe that’s me, playing on my offside and maybe I can give them value there on the penalty kill.’ In games, that’s where he has to stand out in his own mind, play to your strengths, be a big body, be hard to play against and maybe that pushes you up the ladder ahead of the Zborils or the Vaakanainens. I use them because they’re left shots like him. I think those are the things he has to take away when he leaves here and then gets back on the ice, that he can push his way in with that type of play.”
At his stage of his career, Lauzon is open to anything.
“Every player has their own path and everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I just have to be patient and if I get the call, or if I have the chance to start here, I’m just going to do everything in my power to stick.”