Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Drawing too many conclusions early in an AHL season is usually a silly enterprise.
However one preseason expectation actually is holding true for the Windfall Bruins: they’ll rating.
A run of 19 objectives to open this season has powered Windfall to a 4-0 begin for the primary time because the 2007-08 season, after they went on to steer the league with 55 wins and 117 factors. A potent energy play has struck six occasions on its first 16 alternatives.
These Bruins have a nostril for the web. In addition they possess a way for NHL alternatives.
It helps when you’ll be able to bag the AHL’s prime two aim scorers in free company, because the Boston Bruins did this summer season. Matěj Blümel put collectively a dominant 2024-25 marketing campaign for the Texas Stars, main the AHL with 39 objectives, tying for second general with 72 factors, and serving to to take the group to the Western Convention Finals. Alex Steeves scored 36 occasions with the Toronto Marlies, incomes his second straight journey to the AHL All-Star Basic. Each gamers are nonetheless simply 25 years outdated, and each turned heads in coaching camp with Boston earlier than being assigned to Windfall.
And positive sufficient, Blümel and Steeves have six factors apiece by means of 4 video games. Up entrance, they be a part of the likes of Georgii Merkulov, Fabian Lysell, Matthew Poitras, Riley Tufte, rookie Dans Locmelis and captain Patrick Brown in serving to form head coach Ryan Mougenel’s formidable roster.
The again finish has a puck-mover in Victor Söderström, a former first-round draft choose who’s again in North America following one 12 months within the Swedish Hockey League. Like so lots of his teammates, Windfall represents one other crack on the NHL for Söderström, who performed 53 video games over 4 years with the Arizona Coyotes. His rights have been acquired by Boston in June, and he signed a one-year contract. And returning between the pipes is Michael DiPietro, who gained the Baz Bastien Award because the AHL’s excellent goaltender a 12 months in the past.
After spending the higher a part of the previous twenty years as a prime contender, Boston fell to the underside of the NHL’s Jap Convention final season. The Bruins’ foundational franchise gamers have moved on, and normal supervisor Don Sweeney has been tasked with overseeing the group’s shift right into a subsequent period.
Standout AHL gamers take a look at organizations going by means of a transition like Boston’s as a possibility. Blümel and Steeves signed with Boston on the primary day of free company, as did defenseman Jonathan Aspirot. Tufte re-upped for one more season that very same day. Brown, who logged 15 video games for Boston in 2024-25, had already agreed to a one-year extension final Might.
Alternative beckoned, and whereas they could not have made opening-night rosters with the large membership, an NHL recall is rarely far-off. With Boston’s roster in transition, it’s a help-wanted state of affairs.
Nonetheless, flashy level totals solely go to date. NHL groups want reliable three-zone gamers. That’s an important a part of the duty entrusted to Mougenel, who’s beginning his fifth season main the Boston affiliate. It’s a advantageous steadiness with a lot expertise available. With out squashing that offensive creativity, he should ice a group that may additionally deal with play away from the puck.
“There’s a thirst to finish and make performs,” Mougenel mentioned after a 5-3 win at Bridgeport final Friday evening. “Taking part in the appropriate means, that’s actual essential, and also you’ll get your probabilities. When there’s a possibility to make a play, make a play.
“[Brown] holds all people accountable, not solely the way in which he performs however the issues he says, and I believe he’s an incredible instance for our younger gamers.”
Mougenel could have a lot extra follow time to get these techniques, ideas, and particulars firmly into place. House video games this Friday towards Springfield and Sunday vs. Bridgeport, adopted by a visit to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton subsequent week, will shut out Windfall’s October slate.
NHL groups need these reliable gamers, however additionally they search winners. And nice begins matter. They’ll get gamers to the NHL, and so they might help the group ring up wins. Everybody within the AHL expects Windfall to be a playoff group. This can be a franchise that has not missed the postseason lower since 2012. But it surely’s additionally a corporation that would use a long term within the Calder Cup Playoffs. Throughout the hockey world are AHL graduates who’ve used standout postseason performances to behave as one ultimate push into the NHL. The P-Bruins have gained only one playoff sequence since 2017, and haven’t been to the Finals since their championship season in 1999.
Getting that playoff expertise come April, Might, and June depends upon laying down a rock-solid basis within the fall months. Instructing is at all times a prime precedence within the AHL, however particularly when it’s October and November. Mougenel, the remainder of the Windfall teaching workers, and leaders like Brown stand particularly essential within the fall months. It’s pleasing, too.
“They’re enjoyable to look at,” Mougenel mentioned. “They’re a enjoyable group to teach.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
