It was perhaps not a surprise at all that former first-round pick Johnny Beecher was placed on waivers by the Boston Bruins this past week.
It was perhaps a mild eyebrow-raiser that Beecher was claimed by the Calgary Flames on waivers a day later, but then again, perhaps not all that shocking, as he’s a former first-round pick with great skating speed and ideal size at 6-foot-3 and over 200 pounds. Other NHL organizations will think they can draw more production out of the athletic Beecher just as the Bruins thought the same about Oliver Wahlstrom after claiming him on waivers from the Islanders last season.
One would expect the same kind of situation could play out with the Flames and Beecher, but then again, he is still young enough to perhaps flip the switch.
The 24-year-old Beecher has just 11 goals and 22 points in 137 NHL games and has never come close to the offensive production he hinted at during a rookie season where he popped in seven goals and 10 points in 52 games while showing a propensity for winning faceoffs, killing penalties and perhaps holding a bright future as a good fourth-line center.
But the production waned over the last few seasons and the Bruins added a number of other bottom-6 type forwards that brought more offensive potential and more overall engagement to the table. Once Alex Steeves was called up and impressed the B’s coaching staff enough with his work ethic, physicality, effort and the upside that he could bring more offense to the table than Beecher, it felt like Beecher’s days were numbered on the NHL roster.
It was Steeves who assisted on Morgan Geekie’s first goal in Friday night’s 2-1 overtime road victory against the Kings, and it’s his consistently strong and smart two-way play that has him as a player who could stick with the Black and Gold for a while even after everybody in the forward group gets healthy.
15 goals in 23 games for Morgan Geekie 🎯 pic.twitter.com/JcwZGMD19G
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 22, 2025
As for Beecher, it seems pretty clear that the B’s bench boss wasn’t overly enamored with what he was seeing from him out on the ice this season after not doing much last year either.
“For me as a new coach, I gave him a new opportunity,” said Marco Sturm with the trademark honestly that frankly has been a breath of fresh air coming from the Bruins head coach. “Quite frankly, I thought he would be a little bit better, more effective. I thought he wasn’t. At some point you have to decide to move forward.
“Consistency. Effort. I know it’s not easy being in and out of the lineup. But I have guys just waiting for this moment. End of the day, it’s always up to the player. I wanted him. He had a new voice. He had new, fresh eyes [watching him]. I didn’t care about his past. It was up to him.”
Perhaps a change of scenery was needed for Beecher as a former first round pick that had the USNDTP and Michigan on his hockey resume, a player that hasn’t ever really had to fight and scrap his way up as an undrafted or unheralded player without the same kind of background.
It feels like his skating and his PK work along with his faceoff abilities will keep him in the mix for NHL consideration, especially for a Flames organization that is looking for bottom-6 center help, but it also seems pretty obvious at this point that the offensive limitations are never going away that have dogged him going back to the time when he was drafted by the Black and Gold with the 30th pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Either way, Beecher will go down as a first-round pick that was a pretty clear miss for the Bruins organization during a stretch where it feels like fellow first-rounders like Urho Vaakanainen and Fabian Lysell are very much headed for the same kind of fate amid heightened expectations.
ONE TIMERS
• Boston College looks like it's beginning to gain momentum at the top of the Hockey East standings, and 19-year-old James Hagens has been in the middle of it with six goals and 13 points in his first 12 games. Hagens scored a pair of goals in their Friday night win over the University of Maine and helped pace a talented Eagles team that is cranking out high-octane offense these days.
2 goals for James Hagens tonight https://t.co/PPu15NzFf4
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) November 22, 2025
Hagens is the leading scorer for the Eagles this season, along with Jake Sondreal, and the even better news for the Black and Gold is that 19-year-old former first-round pick Dean Letourneau has five goals and 11 points in 12 games after failing to score a goal in Hockey East action last season.
Will Moore (2 goals and six points), Andre Gasseau (one goal and four points) and Oskar Jellvik have all been part of the Eagles offense, as well as 6-foot-5 defenseman Kristian Kostadinski as a regular contributor on the back end.
It continues to be a tantalizing possibility that Hagens could be added to this current Bruins group at the end of the collegiate season if he becomes the dominant force for the Eagles that he’s been in the early going.
• Interesting note from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that some sources are indicating that Charlie McAvoy (facial surgery) will “be okay” for the 2026 Winter Olympics, being held in the month of February in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
A few injury updates around NHL..
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) November 20, 2025
-Charlie McAvoy’s timeline depends on healing from facial surgery, but expectation is he’ll be OK for Olympics. Best case in what was a horrible scenario.
-Islanders bracing for possibility Alexander Romanov out ‘a while’ following Mikko…
It’s great news that he’s coming back after such a horrific injury that was very clearly far worse than a lost tooth or two, after seeing the deflected slapshot back the B’s defenseman right in the jaw.
It's expected that McAvoy will be wearing some kind of face shield protection as well when he does return, and it all begs the question as to how much sooner ahead of the Olympics he’ll come back with the Bruins. That is months from now, of course, for all parties to iron out the details and the mission right now for the Bruins is to keep things afloat while he is home recuperating from his injuries.
• It was a good move for the Bruins to put the “A” on Nikita Zadorov’s sweater and make him the third alternate captain while McAvoy is out of the lineup. The 6-foot-6 defenseman had another strong effort in Friday night’s win over the Kings with a pair of assists and a plus-2 rating in 26 plus minutes of ice time and has really stepped up his game with the B’s needing it while McAvoy is out of the lineup.
Zadorov is a leader in words such as his recent postgame description in Anaheim of the team’s struggles late in games the need for the group to mature as a team, and certainly in actions as one of the big intimidators in the game amongst a Bruins roster that’s got a lot of tough guys these days.
“It means a lot,” said Zadorov. “It means the organization, management and coaches, staff and players trust me. I love being part of this. I take pride in it – being in the league and this team.”
