Is Letting David Pastrnak Play at the World Juniors a Good Move by the Bruins?

The Boston Bruins announced on their website Friday afternoon that David Pastrnak will play in the 2015 World Junior Championships. This comes four days after they reassigned him to Providence following a five-game call-up, the first of the 18-year-old’s career.

Maybe more to the point, this comes after only a three-month introduction of the organization’s reigning first-round draft choice to the club’s system. For no fewer than two-and-a-half weeks, the Czech import will suddenly take a midseason diversion to compete in his own age group.

Make no mistake: It will be the world’s best players in Pastrnak’s age group of 20 years and younger. Still, being where he is in his development, there is no substitute for learning the North American professional game on Boston’s top affiliate.

While the World Juniors may not directly hurt or heavily inhibit Pastrnak’s buildup to a bona fide NHL caliber, it does not sufficiently help him either. It will not make him ready to impact the parent club any sooner. It would be better for the player and the organization to give the prize prospect a smooth, start-to-finish rookie year under the Bruins’ supervision.

In that sense, as temporary as it will be, Boston is making a sacrifice. Friday's press release stated that they will turn Pastrnak loose on the WJC “following the Providence Bruins game on December 20.”

A Friday tweet from Mark Divver of the Providence Journal noted that upon joining the Czechs, Pastrnak will forego as many as six games. Based on the P-Bruins’ schedule, that means starting on Dec. 26 and running through Jan. 4.

In between, he could miss anywhere between five and 10 practices, to say nothing of morning skates that might precede evening games. That, of course, depends on how many sessions the Baby Bruins' brass schedules and/or scrubs out at any time.

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Regardless, it is a substantial break away from the world’s best imitation of the NHL. It is an on-the-fly change of pace, with Pastrnak rejoining a European program and adhering to the international rulebook.

It could be worse. It helps that the tournament will be split between Toronto’s Air Canada Centre and Montreal’s Bell Centre. This means two-plus weeks of skating on North American-sized ponds in the mansions of two of Boston’s Atlantic Division rivals. In addition, there will be no worries of jet lag later on when it comes time to reset to professional mode back in New England.

When Pastrnak does return, the P-Bruins will still have three-and-a-half months left in the regular season. Depending on which teams are seeing playoff action, he could also join a quest for the Calder Cup or serve as a reserve or Black Ace in Boston.

That notwithstanding, Pastrnak would be best served spending a full season in the Bruins’ system with no interruptions. His pure offensive talent on the right wing would fill a glaring cavity on Boston’s depth chart. Therefore, the sooner he is ready for full-time NHL service, the better for the team. A start-to-finish six- or seven-month ride would enhance his chances of being ready by the start of 2015-16.

More critically, it would elevate his odds of being able to physically, mentally and psychologically withstand a full 82-game NHL slate as a 19-year-old next season. That is the beauty of the AHL for products of the European and U.S. college ranks, who have never previously experienced an itinerary of that quantity or quality.

Consider what club president Cam Neely told the New England Sports Network on Thursday:

"

He went down to Providence with some marching orders, so to speak. Work on your defensive game. Work on getting your pucks out at your blue line, in at the other blue line. But for me, his skill set — we see a skill set. He skates really well, sees the ice well. He’s got a good shot. But he’s just got to get bigger and stronger. When you’re playing against men, he’s 18. He’s a good kid. He wants to learn. He’s going to do all that, but he just has to get bigger.

"

Based on Pastrnak’s performance through the first third of the AHL season, he is having little trouble confronting mature competition at that level. He entered Sunday’s action with 16 assists and 21 points through 20 appearances with Providence.

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Until he has the requisite physical fitness and two-way proficiency for a permanent NHL roster spot, nothing outside of the AHL makes sense. Breaking away for multiple weeks in the middle of the season for an international event with fellow teens is less than desirable at this stage.

Granted, this will not be the first time a budding Bruin has taken leave of the AHL for the WJC. In fact, Boston’s current roster has a convincing case study of no long-term harm in letting a professional prospect go for gold.

Patrice Bergeron represented Canada as a 19-year-old in 2004-05, when he was otherwise passing the time productively in Providence during the season-long NHL lockout. Given his seamless assimilation back into the big league when normalcy resumed in 2005-06, he did not suffer from that diversion.

One jutting difference between Bergeron and Pastrnak, though, lies in their respective amateur paths. Bergeron came from his native country’s major-junior system, the best simulation of a North American professional season an elite amateur can ask for.

And add in the fact that Bergeron had already logged a full-length season with Boston in 2003-04. If not for the labor stoppage, he likely never would have sported a Spoked-P or been loaned to Canada’s WJC squad.

Conversely, Pastrnak completed his pre-draft development in the Swedish ranks last winter. In turn, Providence offered him his first protracted test on this continent this autumn. Now he needs to keep producing on the farm while solidifying his bulk and intangible grasp of the Bruins' system.

There is at least one unique benefit to competing in the World Junior tournament: Depending on how far the Czechs go, Pastrnak could get a chance to demonstrate his big-game aptitude against a host of other elite NHL talent of tomorrow.

Still, it is simply a far cry from the regimen the Bruins are hoping he will follow as soon at 2015-16.

This is not a bad move per se, or at least not an egregious move. But it is far from the best one.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via NHL.com.