Boston Bruins
“He has some interesting, a lot of good tools to find the back of the net.”
All Matej Blumel is looking for is a shot in the NHL ranks.
The 25-year-old winger has seemingly checked off every box during his extended stint in the AHL.
Over his last two seasons with the Dallas Stars’ AHL affiliate, Blumel has lit the lamp 70 times over 139 games — culminating in a league-leading 39 tallies during the 2024-25 season.
Those efforts led to little beyond a few cups of coffee on a deep Dallas depth chart. In total, Blumel has appeared in just 13 games with the Stars, scoring two goals.
Given the logjam in place with the Stars, Blumel hit the open market this past summer in search of a clean slate — and a team willing to give unproven talents a longer runway during in the build-up to the 2025-26 season.
Blumel — who inked a one-year deal with Boston in July — believes he’s find the ideal spot with the Original Six franchise.
“Sometimes it was very frustrating,” Blumel said of his time with Dallas. “Last year I was going to camp, I wanted to earn a spot. Didn’t earn it for a third straight year. So it was pretty frustrating for the first few months.
“But afterwards, I was just like — let’s just play hockey and then see where it gets me. And now I’m here, so I’m very happy for an opportunity with the Bruins, and I’m gonna take it and I’m gonna do as best as I can here.”
Given both Blumel’s body of work in the AHL and Boston’s evident need for more scoring punch in the middle-six group, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Marco Sturm and the Bruins are seemingly putting Blumel in a position to succeed at the start of camp.
Through the first two days of camp, Blumel has skated alongside fellow Czech forward Pavel Zacha — as well as another expected lineup regular in Tanner Jeannot.
In most cases, it’s a fruitless venture to get swept up in how lines shake out through the first few days of a three-week training camp.
But as Sturm tries to find sources of offensive chemistry beyond his top trio of David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, and Morgan Geekie, Boston’s new coach harped on the need to identify “pairs” of skaters who can build a strong rapport moving forward.
As such, a shot-first Blumel could be logging even more reps moving forward with his fellow countrymen in Zacha.
“It’s a little bit of a combination of everything,” Sturm said when asked of his approach with building lines. “It could be veterans. It could be young guys. It could be a language thing. Like just for example, Zacha and Blumel. That was me thinking, ‘Oh, they already have good chemistry.’ I think Blumel is a scorer. So, maybe he’d be a good guy for Zacha playing up the middle.”
Blumel, who noted that the presence of Czech players on Boston’s roster in Pastrnak and Zacha did play a part in his decision to join the team, spent his first week in his new city at Zacha’s apartment in order to get the lay of the land.
“It had an impact on my decision [to sign], because last year we didn’t have any Czech guys in the Dallas organization,” Blumel said. “Sometimes it’s really nice, because during the year you have ups and downs. … You want to have some Czech players around so [they] can lift you up, pick you up, and help you a little bit.”
Blumel’s production at the AHL level is no guarantee of further success in the NHL.
But Blumel’s shot-first approach and versatile offensive skillset has clearly caught the eye of Sturm and a Bruins team that has already acknowledged that consistent 5-on-5 scoring might be a struggle unless ancillary players rise to the occasion.
“He’s an interesting guy,” Sturm said of Blumel. “He played in Texas, and we played against him two games. I remember those two games, he’s one of those guys we had to make sure, ‘We gotta cover this guy,’ because he’s such a good shooter and scorer. Especially on the power play, where Leon Draisaitl hangs out, he has that spot [in the right circle]. He was so dangerous, so we really had to pre-scout him.
“Having said that, playing in the NHL, he doesn’t have that 20 minutes a night. So, it’s a totally different game. It’s a totally different style sometimes kids like that have to play. It’s a big change playing seven minutes or 20 minutes. You get way more comfortable. It’s not easy. But he was definitely a threat, and hopefully he’s going to get some opportunities here to feel comfortable and be the player I just saw last season with Texas. Because he has some interesting, a lot of good tools to find the back of the net.”
The onus will have to fall on Blumel to validate the belief that Sturm has expressed in him over the next few weeks. If he can pot a few pucks during preseason action, a spot riding shotgun next to Zacha could be the cards for the young winger.
And above all else, an opportunity to finally make a mark at hockey’s highest level.
“I’ve always liked to score,” Blumel said. “I’ve always liked to play on offense, but my last three years in the AHL, I had a great coaching group — and they helped me to be better on both sides of the rink.
“So I think it looks like I really like offense, that I scored goals. But I also can help on the other side of the ice … Whatever role I get, I’ll take it.”
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