With the Bruins in off-season mode and focusing on improving the NHL roster and bringing in fresh new talent to the pipeline, they announced a signing today. Finding young players that have the skill and ability to score has been on the top of the Bruins’ list as, at times, they lack secondary scoring. With their roster aging out, they need young capable talent that possesses those traits, and today they brought on a player that meets the criteria.
The Bruins announced they signed 21-year-old Luke Toporowski to a two-year AHL contract that runs through the 2023-2024 season. The Quad City native from Bettendorf, Iowa, has been playing in the WHL since the 2017-2018 season, where he has shined for both the Spokane Chiefs and the Kamloops Blazers. Toporowski also played one season in the USHL for the Sioux Falls Stampede during the 2020-2021 season.
The 5’11” and 181 lbs left winger comes from a hockey family as his father, Kerry Toporowski, was a defenseman who played minor league hockey from 1989-90 to 2003-04. Kerry played in the WHL, IHL, UHL, and ECHL and made it as high as the AHL. Kerry played 53 games for the Adirondack Red Wings and three games for the Portland Pirates. He most notably played six seasons for the Quad City Mallards of the UHL.
Luke has had success in the WHL, producing 199 points across 245 games. He is coming off his best season yet after splitting the season between Spokane and Kamloops. In 27 games for the Spokane Chiefs, he scored 15 goals and dished out 14 assists for 29 points before playing 22 games for the Kamloops Blazers, where he added another 20 goals and 14 assists for 34 points.
He was a key contributor to the Blazers’ postseason success as he helped lead the team to the third round of the playoffs before falling in seven games to the Seattle Thunderbirds. In 16 playoff games, Toporowski recorded nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points while posting a plus-9 rating.
In the second round of the WHL playoffs, fans watched Toporowski face-off against the Bruins’ top prospect Fabian Lysell, who will now become teammates down in Providence. Toporowski outperformed Lysell in the six-game series as he finished with four goals and three assists for seven points compared to Lysell, who didn’t manage to find the back of the net but recorded six assists.
If Toporowski can translate his game from the WHL level to the AHL level and then to the NHL, he has the opportunity to carve out a role in the Bruins organization. With Toporowski a left-winger and Lysell a right-winger, the thought of having these two talented players on the same line should excite fans if they can build chemistry and score and dish out assists at the same rate they did in the WHL. At 21 years old, the sky is the limit, and Bruins fans should be excited to watch this young man progress through the ranks and be a key contributor for the storied franchise down the road.
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