The Boston Bruins have been looking to develop young centermen to eventually replace two all-time performers in the organization’s 98-year history. The Bruins acquired Pavel Zacha and hoped to sign the center, who is playing mainly wing this season, as the 25-year-old reaches restricted free agency. From there, Boston has its work cut out for them regarding future pivots. The necessity of the position forced the Bruins to sign an 18-year-old with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League, and Matthew Poitras is showing signs of being a candidate to play in Boston down in the future.
Poitras recently was named OHL Player of the Week ending November 20, as the Brooklin, Ontario native scored two goals with six assists in just two games on the week. Poitras helped the Storm overcome Niagra on Thursday night, recording four assists, with three of them coming in the third period. Poitras was named the game’s third star and then named the first star by scoring twice while adding two assists as Guelph beat Kitchener on Saturday. Poitras opened the scoring in Saturday’s win and scored the eventual game-winning goal early in the second period.
Poitras leads the team with 23 points in 16 games with a plus-4 rating and has won 102 face-offs. Boston drafted the 5-foot-11, 170-pound center in the second round (54th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft. Poitras was Guelph’s first-round (12th overall) pick in the 2020 OHL Priority Selection from the Whitby Wildcats U16 program.
The young forward has had an adventurous season so far after being involved in two slew-footing incidents, one of them leading to a suspension. As a draft prospect, Poitras was considered a skilled, hard-working center who played a gritty, pesky style. That has been evident with Guelph. Poitras will be a player to monitor this summer in the development camp for the Bruins.
