Puck Prose
Fansided

Each NHL team’s top breakout candidate for the 2019-20 season

By Dave Stevenson

BUFFALO, NY - DECEMBER 22: Ondrej Kase #25 of the Anaheim Ducks controls the puck against Lawrence Pilut #24 of the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL game on December 22, 2018 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Rob Marczynski/NHLI via Getty Images)
BUFFALO, NY - DECEMBER 22: Ondrej Kase #25 of the Anaheim Ducks controls the puck against Lawrence Pilut #24 of the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL game on December 22, 2018 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Rob Marczynski/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images /

Boston Bruins – Jake DeBrusk

The Boston Bruins, by my definition of “breakout player”, have a very limited number of candidates. Jake DeBrusk, though, stood out to me. He’s a legitimate top-six wing, but if his overall game improves at the rate it’s been improving, I could see him sneaking into the upper echelon of second-line wings.

DeBrusk’s job is made much easier thanks to the Bruins top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak. Still, he played over 200 minutes against elite competition and had a 56% CorsiFor percentage. That’s pretty darn good.

In his first two NHL seasons, DeBrusk has two seasons with at least 40 points. That’s nothing to sneeze at. DeBrusk’s two-way play has been shining. He just needs to get it all together on offense. That’s something I think he could do.

DeBrusk is above average in just about every metric you can think of. While he has been getting results, they probably haven’t been as good as they should have been. A lot of forwards break out in their third season and DeBrusk seems like as good of a candidate as any to do so.

Honorable mention: Danton Heinen is another candidate. I’m a lot less certain about him because it’s still not clear what his role is.

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