Boston Bruins forward Matt Beleskey sounds like a man whose patience is already wearing thin. Beleskey, who has yet to don a Bruin uniform after the team picked him up during the looming 2015-16 NHL season's free agency period just a few short weeks ago, told the Boston team website recently that if it were up to him, he'd be pulling that black and gold sweater over his head today.
"I could end the summer right now and start camp tomorrow," Beleskey said, via BostonBruins.com. "I'm ready to go. This is always the hardest part of the summer, when you've been training and you're kind of sick of that. I just want to get out there and start playing."
Beleskey, a Barrie, Ontario native, has been putting himself through training and solo workouts as he prepares for his seventh NHL season and first in a Bruins uniform. Beleskey spent the first six years of his professional ice hockey career as a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Mostly a role player and bottom of the lineup guy for the early portion of his NHL life, Beleskey broke out in 2014-15 for a 32-point, 22-goal campaign that led directly to his being picked up by the Bruins.
After Boston shipped out the likes of Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic this offseason, the Bruins team that takes the ice at the outset of the 2015-16 season will look very different indeed. Beleskey, who garnered a five-year, $19 million contract from new Boston GM Don Sweeney, represents a major part of that roster revamping.
It will be interesting to see what Sweeney and Bruins head coach Claude Julien do with Beleskey this season. Does he slot into Lucic's role on the top line? Does he fill an important, if less high-profile third-line role?
One thing, at least, is for certain. While Lucic seemed to be breaking down with age, Beleskey seems to be getting stronger and more potent. It will be up to him to prove that last year and the big free agent deal it brought, were warranted.
