The Boston Bruins have assigned forward Kenny Agostino and goaltender Zane McIntyre back to Providence of the AHL, after both dressed for the team last night. McIntyre backed up Tuukka Rask, while Agostino played just under six minutes up front. Both will return to the P-Bruins, where they were having excellent seasons.
With Anton Khudobin dealing with just a minor injury, McIntyre was never expected to stay up with the NHL club for much longer. He’ll serve as the third goaltender for the Bruins organization all season, but hopefully not need to start many games for the big club. The 25-year old goaltender has a .928 save percentage with Providence this season, something he’ll look to continue now that he’s back in the AHL.
Agostino is a more interesting story. Last year’s AHL MVP and scoring leader, he signed a one-year, one-way $875K contract with the Bruins this summer and looked like he had an inside track for a role up front. That all disappeared in training camp when several young players showed they were ready, and Agostino has been limited to just five games and 12 minutes a night for Boston. He’s registered just one point in those games, but has generated 11 shots. While there are obvious shortcomings to his game, he does have offensive upside that could feature at some point this season.
For now, he’ll have to continue his domination of the AHL and prove that he’s ready to take the next step. At 25, Agostino now has seasons of 43, 57 and 83 points in the minor leagues and was off to a hot start with seven points in his first three games for the P-Bruins. If there ever was such a thing as a “Quad-A” player in hockey, he is it.