08-03-2025
Jakub Lauko knows his second stint in Boston is with a vastly different Bruins team
Now 24 years old, and nearly seven years removed from the amateur entry draft in which the Bruins selected him at No. 77, Lauko officially began his Bruins redux tour here against the Lightning Saturday.
Coach Joe Sacco paired up the 6-foot-1-inch, 195-pound Lauko at right wing with Elias Lindholm at center and fellow ex-Wild Marat Khusnutdinov — also acquired in the trade that sent Justin Brazeau to the Wild — on the left side.
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Energetic and perpetually upbeat and smiling, Lauko was well-liked in the dressing room across the two seasons (83 games total) in his previous tour with the Black and Gold. He was dealt to the Wild last June in the swap that sent Vinni Lettieri and a draft pick the Bruins then used to select Elliott Groenewold, the 6-2 defenseman from Vermont who is wrapping up his freshman year on the Quinnipiac blueline.
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The Black and Gold roster is a vastly different place today than when Lauko was drafted in 2018, just a year before the Bruins would play in the Stanley Cup Final. In fact, it's a vastly different place than when he was dealt only nine months ago. There's a lot more opportunity for Lauko to secure full-time work, a fact that doesn't escape him.
'Obviously, the circumstances are a little bit different,' he said prior to taking the ice for the matinee vs. the Lightning, 'and this position for me on this team right now is different from the past years — so it's a challenge, and I just hope to come and hopefully be an addition for this team and this organization.'
Upon drafting Lauko, the Bruins hoped he could channel his energy and offensive instinct into becoming a potential high-end NHL goal scorer. He was assigned to the Quebec League (Rouyn-Noranda) just weeks after being drafted and he popped in 21 goals in 44 games with the junior team. He then turned pro and spent the next season (2019-20) at AHL Providence, and to date he has yet to evolve as a consistent scoring threat.
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Maybe now, with much more elbow room on the roster and the Bruins in desperate need for goal scoring, his time has come.
'When I knew I was going here,' said Lauko, 'I was excited to see the guys. I know [some] guys left, but that's the hockey. Everyone knows and everyone feels this team took a huge hit with the guys leaving … a big part of the Boston Bruins in the last few years, like Marchy [Brad Marchand], Brando [Carlo], CC [Charlie Coyle] and Freddy [Trent Frederic]. They've been a round and they've been the ones carrying the culture — so it's a big hit.'
To have been with the club before, noted Lauko, left him knowing and embracing what it's like to be a Bruin. Once traded to the Wild, he said, it took him some time to adjust not to being with the team that drafted him and helped him develop his game.
'It was a shock then, and it was a shock again a few days ago, too,' he said. 'It's a business. We all know it's a business. We have to adjust. It was an adjustment to be on a different team [with the Wild] and now it will be an adjustment to be back here, but it's our job to make the adjustments as smooth as possible and be a help right away.'
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Lauko, in part because of his high-energy, high-contact approach, has fought the injury bugaboo frequently in his career. This season, prior to getting flipped back to Boston, injury limited him to 38 games and low point production (3-3—6).
Last season, Lauko played 60 games with the Bruins and landed 176 hits, second on the club only to Frederic (204). His hits-per-60-minutes rate (17.92) led the club and ranked sixth in the NHL for players who appeared in a minimum 60 games.
Those ahead of Lauko: Michael Pezzetta (30.53), Nicolas Deslauriers (23.06), Keegan Kolesar (19.36), Garnet Hathaway (19.10), and Liam O'Brien (18.82). If he can deliver similar pluck in his second go round, it should secure him a spot in the bottom six, no matter what he produces for goals and assists.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at
