If accounting works, Bussi may make Bruins
An accounting major during his three years at Western Michigan, Brandon Bussi said he likes to think of himself “as a numbers guy.”
For the moment, a senior certified public accountant would be challenged to tell Bussi, 25, precisely where he fits into the Bruins goaltending equation.
A heavily-sought free agent in the spring of ’22 after three years in college, he turned pro and had a very impressive rookie pro season in the AHL, collecting a 22-5-4 mark with the Providence Bruins.
The 6-foot-4-inch, 215-pound Bussi, who grew up a short distance from Charlie McAvoy on Long Island, could be the lead goalie prospect to join the Spoked-B varsity if the front office decides the roster’s overall dollars are too tight to carry both Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
Swayman on Tuesday received more than a three-fold raise in pay, a jump to $3.475 million, via his salary arbitration award. The Bruins submitted a $2 million offer, and the arbitrator, not surprisingly, pegged his pay some 70 percent higher — albeit some 30 percent short of the $4.8 million sought by Swayman.
Swayman’s deal, combined with Trent Frederic’s increased cap hit ($2.3 million) the same day, left general manager Don Sweeney with but one varsity roster spot to close out and some $420,000 in cap space, per puckpedia.com. It should be easy for Sweeney to tidy up the math before the Oct. 11 season opener and chances are he’ll opt to keep his Ullmark-Swayman tandem intact, their combined $8.475 million payout representing only 10.1 percent of the cap.
For his part, though fascinated with mathematical equations, and of course his playing future, Bussi has chosen not to get fixated on variables beyond his control.
“Honestly, not that much,” Bussi said when asked how much time he has spent pondering his place in all the math. “My job is just to be ready for when the season starts, with my summer training and then training camp, and wherever I’m put to play, I am going to perform the best I can. Whatever happens, happens . . . I don’t get too obsessed with it. I’ve just wrapped up my first year of pro hockey. I plan to play for a long time. Obviously, I’m hoping at some point to play my first NHL game. That’s a dream you chase. But I’m not too absorbed by that. I know if I keep working hard that opportunity will come at some point.
“My job is only to be ready for Opening Day — wherever that may be, or when that time comes.”
The Bruins front office, according to Bussi, has yet to inform him whether to report to rookie camp with the rest of the starry-eyed WannaBs on Sept. 13 or hang tight until the varsity roster reports to Brighton a week later.
Either way, Bussi already is here and will be for the remainder of the summer, living in North Andover and training at Brian D’Accord’s “Stop It” goaltending enterprise based in Woburn. It’s the same routine he’s had for the last six to seven summers, well before he reported to Western Michigan in the fall of 2019. Initially torn whether to stay for his senior year or turn pro, Bussi said he ultimately opted to go pro when feeling that he had grasped all there was to learn at the NCAA level. It’s the same pragmatism that led Swayman, a Bruins draftee, to sign in the wake of his junior year at Maine in the spring of 2020.
A workhorse at Western Michigan his junior season, Bussi went 26-12-1 and had multiple NHL teams offering him the chance to turn pro. In the end, he said, it was “sort of a no-brainer” to sign with the Bruins.
“Just the history of the organization, and the track record of goalies and their success — in the American Hockey League and the NHL,” Bussi said. “And the opportunity to work with Bob [Essensa] and Dunny [Mike Dunham]
. . . I thought this was going to be the right spot for me to develop.” Not to mention the added plus of “being an East Coast guy,” added Bussi, noting the advantage of being able to connect easily with his parents on Long Island.
Like McAvoy, Bussi grew up a big Rangers fan, opting for the Blueshirts over the mid-island Islanders. He said he only made it to Madison Square Garden a handful of times to see the Rangers, but he was enamored by the work of ”King” Henrik Lundqvist, the legendary Blueshirt stopper.
“It was fun . . . you could just tell his competitiveness, his fight for every puck, which is something I’ve kind of carried with me throughout my hockey career,” said Bussi. “I think my competitiveness in practices and games, and willingness to fight no matter what the situation, is one of my biggest attributes. And Henrik was the king of that . . . hence his nickname.”