The Bruins’ fire sale in March of 2025 has already paid tangible dividends. Fraser Minten, obtained in the Brandon Carlo deal from the Toronto Maple Leafs, climbed up the depth chart from fourth-line center last season and his final destination – second-line center? first-line center? – is still to be determined. Marat Khusnutdinov, acquired in the Justin Brazeau trade with Minnesota, has proven to be a valuable Swiss Army knife that can be plugged in on the first line, fourth line and everything in between.
Is Will Zellers, who came to the Bruins via the Charlie Coyle trade with Colorado, going to be the next prospect in that Great 2025 Sell-Off to make a mark?
We will have to wait a bit to find that out because Zellers is headed back for his sophomore season at North Dakota. But with the resume he’s building, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the 6-foot, 180-pound Zellers in Black-and-Gold by April.
Zellers had an excellent freshman season, posting 18-16-34 totals in 38 games. But his performance at the World Junior Championships for Team USA really opened eyes. He went from being an afterthought to one of the Americans’ top performers
“It gave me a lot of confidence,” said Zellers during the Bruins just-completed Development Camp. “Being a late add, too, you never know what to expect. But I just wanted to make it hard on the coaches and go in there and prove I can play against these type of players. That skill, it’s the biggest U20 tournament in the world. It’s like the Super Bowl in Canada, so it was pretty special and I had a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year after that.”
In the tourney, Zellers had five goals and three assists in five games and made a steep climb up the depth chart.
“I knew I was going to start off on a bottom role but I wasn’t going to pout about it,” Zellers said. “I was going to be the best fourth liner in the tournament and if I move up to the second or third, or even 13th forward, I was going to be the best at my position. Luckily enough, I was getting some lucky puck bounces and it went my way a little bit. But it felt good.”
When the deal was made last season, Zellers was lighting it up with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. He finished with 44 goals and 27 assists in 52 games. But the questions with Zellers were the same as it is with most junior hockey scoring machines. How well-rounded is his game? How are his details? Well, they needed work. But the sharp-shooting left wing has demonstrated he’s willing to put the focus on the less glamorous parts of the game.
“I think he rounded out his game a lot this year,” said Parker Mackay, the Bruins development coordinator and college scout. “When I first popped in to see him last year when we acquired him, he was telling me all the right things. He wanted to pay more attention to the defensive side of the puck, he wanted to hang on to pucks a little bit more offensively, he wanted to be a little more physical, tougher to play against. The whole year this year he gravitated to that and I think it led to a lot of success, (including) the World Juniors. It was a really good season for Will and we’re really excited for him to continue to grow.”
Will Zellers runs through a drill during Bruins Development Camp at Warrior Ice Arena. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
The way he looks back at his first season at North Dakota is promising as well. North Dakota was eliminated in the NCAA semifinals by Wisconsin. The season was bittersweet.
“The only goal is to hang one of those national championship banners. And to get so close and lose like that is pretty tough,” Zellers said. “But it’s only going to motivate us for next year. We’ve got a lot of young guys coming back who have been through that process. It hurt pretty bad, but it’s also going to help us in the long run.”
The Hawks have as good a chance as any team in the nation to go all the way with the way they loaded up. Not only is Zellers back, they are expected to have two top-10 picks on the back end in Keaton Verhoeff (9th) and incoming Carson Carels (6th), and up front the high-scoring Ruck twins from Medicine Hat, Liam (22nd) and Markus (39th), are also committed. Bruins’ draftee and fellow Minnesotan Cooper Simpson, who tore it up with the USHL Youngstown Phantoms (34-40-74 in 61 games), is also headed to Grand Forks.
“I feel real good about it. I don’t know about Carels, whether he’s going to come or sign right away but the rumor is he’s going to come in. He’s a big piece,” Zellers said. “We have a deep team, young team but we made it pretty far in the tournament. We all know what it takes to get there so I feel really excited to get to school.”
The ultimate is to make it to the NHL. With Zellers, Boston College’s Dean Letourneau and possibly Quinnipiac’s Chris Pelosi and Elliotte Groenewold, the B’s system could very well have a big influx of young talent come the spring. The success Zellers has had at the college level makes him think that’s not too far away.
“College is such a hard league to play in. Doesn’t matter if it’s Hockey East or NCHC, it’s so hard going up against grown men,” Zellers said. “I’m kind of proving, not just to everyone but to myself as well that I can play in college and score goals like in juniors. It for sure helped my confidence and made me realize that the NHL isn’t too far of a reach away. I’ve still got a lot of work to do but it felt good after this year.”