A lot of trips up and down I-95.
Jesper Boqvist’s 2024 rating: 5.5
Signed as part of the Bruins’ summer 2023 bargain shopping spree, Jesper Boqvist was brought to Boston to fill a bottom-six role and add some speed to the Bruins’ forward corps.
For the most part, he filled that role well enough — but he struggled to find the consistency required to maintain an everyday NHL roster spot.
Because of that lack of consistency, he spent most of the season shuttling between Boston and Providence, which is fine for a guy signed to a one-year, league-minimum deal.
Boqvist didn’t make the NHL roster out of training camp, and reported to Providence after clearing waivers.
He’d be brought back to the big club in late October, only to play a shade over six minutes in a single game before being optioned back to the AHL.
I’m not even sure if that qualifies as a cup of coffee. A sip of coffee?
The same thing happened in mid-December: single-game recall, almost comically short ice time (4:47 this time!), back to the AHL.
You could argue, looking at the stats, that he wasn’t really given a long look at the NHL level; you could also argue that he didn’t do enough to earn that look.
Plus, Boqvist was one of a handful of guys vying for a bottom-six spot, so there was always going to be an odd man out.
When he found himself in Providence, the Swede was a fairly reliable contributor, putting up 10G-13A-23PTS numbers in 31 games.
He finally got his first extended NHL look in the new year, and things went pretty well: he scored once and recorded two assists in the first eight games of that stint.
After that, it was ups and downs for Boqvist. His best stretch of the season came in February, where he notched three goals and four assists over a seven-game span.
He’s score twice more after that stretch, the last goal being an OT winner in a wild April game against Florida:
Boqvist appeared in all seven games of the Toronto series, and was partially responsible for that series getting off to a good start:
That play was a good glimpse at the smooth skating and soft hands he can bring to a game, as was this one earlier in the season against the Canucks:
Unfortunately for Boqvist, the assist on the Beecher goal would be the high point of his playoffs. He didn’t record another point, and was a healthy scratch for Game 1 of the Florida series.
He appeared in Game 2 of that series, but that was it.
Boqvist will spend this season with those same Florida Panthers, agreeing to a one-year deal this summer.
Overall, “fine” is probably the best word to describe Boqvist’s year. He was brought in to fight for a bottom-six spot and he did that well enough.
A little more productivity on offense likely would have changed the narrative for his season, but overall he was a decent bargain signing who will now ply his trade elsewhere.