Bruins development camp notebook: First impressions of 2026 draft class

While the start of free agency - and a slew of big trades - was the big story around the NHL this week, the Boston Bruins also held their annual development camp at Warrior Ice Arena from Monday through Thursday, concluding with Thursday's prospects scrimmage.

Full disclosure: I was not able to make Thursday's final session, but I was there for the first three days. Here are some takeaways from the week:

Letourneau the leader

With James Hagens not attending (the Bruins didn't feel it was necessary after a long season that included a taste of the NHL), the main man was 2024 first-round pick Dean Letourneau.

The Bruins like to put development camp "veterans" in a little bit of a leadership role during this week, and Letourneau, now in his third development camp, was one of those this year. The role isn't anything crazy, but it does put Letourneau first in most drills and position him as the guy to set an example for the younger players participating for the first time.

It's good practice for Letourneau, who will also be counted on to be a team leader and go-to guy at Boston College this season. Letourneau said he briefly considered turning pro after his bounce-back sophomore year, but quickly knew that going back to BC for his junior year was the way to go.

Letourneau, who was the best player on the ice this week, figures to start the season as the Eagles' No. 1 center, potentially on a line with 2026 Columbus first-round pick Oscar Hemming. Led by those two, BC is going to have one of the beefier forward groups you'll see in college hockey. Letourneau is 6-foot-7, 228 pounds; Hemming comes in at 6-4, 200; Seattle second-round pick Casey Mutryn is 6-3, 203; and Edmonton second-rounder Rudolfs Berzkalns in 6-4, 203.

"Goal is to go back to BC and have a more dominant year, and then see what happens from there," Letourneau said. "...Kind of be a leader, lead by example on and off the ice."

Fellow Eagle and Bruins prospect Will Moore, a second-round pick in 2025, was at Warrior this week for all the off-ice parts of development camp, but did not skate as he recovers from an injury.

First impressions of the 2026 class

After Letourneau, the biggest names might have been the Bruins' 2026 picks, all seven of whom were able to attend. Leading that group was second-round goalie Yuri Ivanov, who was not only the Bruins' highest pick this year, but also one of the biggest surprises of the whole draft.

Ivanov was not even ranked by some outlets. Central Scouting had him as the 10th-ranked goalie on their international list, but the Bruins made him the second goalie off the board. General manager Don Sweeney said on Saturday that the Bruins' goalie staff, led by goalie coach Bob Essensa and goalie development coach Mike Dunham, were especially high on Ivanov after watching his play in the MHL (Russia's top junior league) and spending time on him at agent Dan Milstein's Gold Star camp just prior to the draft.

That Gold Star camp is big when it comes to final evaluations of Russian prospects, and it comes so late in the process that public rankings really don't reflect what NHL teams learn there. I'm not trying to tell anyone whether Ivanov was a reach or a good pick or anything, but Ivanov making a good impression on NHL staff there would help explain why the Bruins decided to take him so early and not risk waiting another round or two.

Evaluating goalies at something like development camp can be tough, but I will say that to my eye, Ivanov's athleticism stood out. His reactions during net-front and scramble type of drills were very good.

Beyond Ivanov, forwards Nils Bartholdsson (third round) and Matvei Kotkov (fourth round) clearly have some skill with the puck on their stick. Bruins director of player development Adam McQuaid mentioned Kotkov by name after both Day 1 and Day 4 of camp when asked which players stood out, saying he moved well and already had a pretty strong frame.

"Impressed with Kotkov," McQuaid said. "I think he looked really good."

Defenseman Vashek Blanar, a 2025 fourth-round pick, noted that he had been victimized by a couple ankle-breaking moves from Bartholdsson when the two played against each other in Sweden last year.

Oscar Olsson, another fourth-round pick, has a really good shot and was one of the better finishers throughout the week. At 6-foot-4, he projects as a power forward-type if he reaches his ceiling. There wasn't a whole lot of opportunity to show off his physical game during a week like this.

Fifth-round pick Jacob Vandeven is an interesting project with upside. He was a forward his whole life before making a full-time switch to defense in December. He's still, understandably, very raw and has a lot more to learn about his new position, but he's 6-foot-5, a good skater, and can really fire it from the point. There are tools to work with for sure. Vandeven will be full-time with the London Knights in the OHL this season after getting a taste there late in the season this year.

"A big body that has a ton of tools," McQuaid said of Vandeven. "And with being somewhat new to the position, it's kind of a blank slate. He has really good instincts for defending, good stick. He got his stick on a ton of pucks in different drills we were doing. Seems to have a level of calmness and comfort with the puck."

Sixth-round goalie Roberto Henriquez and seventh-round defenseman Cullen McCrate are both NCAA-bound, with Henriquez going to Boston College (director of amateur scouting Ryan Nadeau joked that the Bruins had to take at least one Eagle) and McCrate joining Michigan State. Henriquez should have a good shot at winning BC's starting job after goaltending was a weakness last year. McCrate will have to fight for playing time on an absolutely loaded Spartans team, one whose defense got even stronger this week when Nashville first-rounder Tommy Bleyl announced he would jump to MSU now instead of next year as originally planned.

NoDak connection

Will Zellers (acquired from Colorado in the Charlie Coyle trade) and Cooper Simpson (a third-round pick in 2025) had lockers next to each other all week, and have also been skating together back home in Minnesota this summer.

The connections don't end there. They'll be teammates at the University of North Dakota this season – Zellers a sophomore, Simpson a freshman. In a lot of ways, Simpson is very much trying to follow in Zellers' footsteps.

The two play similar games as skilled, crafty, creative wings, and have similar builds (Zellers is 6-feet, 180 pounds; Simpson 6-feet, 185). Zellers lit up the USHL two years ago with 71 points in 52 games and parlayed that into a nearly point-per-game freshman season in the NCAA, along with a spot on the U.S. World Junior team, where he truly made a name for himself by leading the team in scoring despite being a late addition to the squad.

Simpson also lit up the USHL in his 18-year-old season this year, putting up 74 points in 61 games for Youngstown. Now he'll hope to make the kind of impact at North Dakota that Zellers did. He'll also hope to earn a World Junior nod himself; Simpson was one of 47 players USA Hockey invited to the World Junior Summer Showcase later this month (Will Moore was invited as well).

"Honestly, I feel like I'm kind of following in his footsteps," Simpson said of Zellers. "He's a year older than me and he's done this stuff in front of me, so I kind of just talk to him about what to do. Obviously school will be a lot of time to bond with him, and it'll be a lot of fun."

Quinnipiac connection

The other college teammate connection worth highlighting is the Quinnipiac guys: center Chris Pelosi (2023 third-round pick) and defenseman Elliott Groenewold (2024 fourth-round pick), who are actually roommates at college.

Both are heading back to the Bobcats for their junior year, with high expectations for a team that should be a preseason top-10 team nationally.

Pelosi jumped from 24 points in 38 games as a freshman to 34 points in 35 games as a sophomore. Groenewold, meanwhile, led the country in plus/minus at plus-39. Both said they briefly considered turning pro, but that going back for a junior season was ultimately a pretty easy decision.

While neither is a truly elite prospect, the NHL is certainly a possibility for both. Pelosi is a reliable two-way center who has embraced the role of net-front presence as he's put on more muscle (now up to 6-foot-2, 195 pounds). Groenewold has been used in a shutdown role at Quinnipiac and has grown his transition and offensive game a bit, including 20 points in 40 games last year. He's got pretty good size at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds.

"He's one of my best friends," Groenewold said of Pelosi. "We're roommates back at school, so we're together all the time. We kind of grow together, we cook together, we do pretty much everything together. So, it's pretty awesome. It's special. I'm always happy for him when he's scoring and doing well. I hope that someday we're back in Boston together."