Pastrnak Takes Ice for First Camp Practice

BOSTON - The Bruins received some positive news on the injury front on Tuesday morning as David Pastrnak made his first training camp appearance at Warrior Ice Arena. The winger donned a maroon non-contract jersey during an optional practice as he makes his way back from offseason hip surgery.
Pastrnak underwent a successful right hip arthroscopy and labral repair on Sept. 16 and was given a five-month recovery from the time of the procedure, which would take him to mid-February. Earlier in camp, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said that the 24-year-old was a bit ahead of schedule in his rehab.

"I know that Bruce alluded to it that he might be ahead of schedule. We don't pick any one particular day that we circled on the calendar," said Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. "We'll allow him to go through his progressions so our training staff, our entire medical group, and the strength and conditioning side of it can find out where he's at and continue to increase his load overall as he goes through.
"You saw him with a bunch of players today integrating into some of those situations, which is really his first day. And he'll continue to do that as he goes along while we're on the road. Unfortunately, he won't be with us on the road to do some of those battle situations and we don't have extra players around to be able to facilitate that.
"But we expect him to fully re-integrate into practice upon our return and then we'll get a much better indication of where he is, sort of circling a date sometime in February."

Fellow top-line winger Brad Marchand did not take the ice with the main group for the second consecutive day as he continues to pace himself in his rehab from offseason hernia surgery. Sweeney, however, said that he expects the winger to be back at it for Wednesday's practice in Brighton.
"Just a couple days going through some soreness associated with his offseason [surgery]," said Sweeney. "Obviously, we're being cautious with Brad and his return to play. We set a goal for him to be there Opening Night. We still expect that to happen, but we have to react with how he's feeling."
Bruins winger Karson Kuhlman also made his camp debut on Tuesday donning a maroon non-contact sweater. Per Cassidy, Kuhlman had been dealing with COVID-19 testing issues earlier in camp. Among the other players that joined Pastrnak and Kuhlman for the skate were Jakub Zboril, Jack Studnicka, Urho Vaakanainen, Daniel Vladar, Anders Bjork, Connor Clifton, Trent Frederic, and Par Lindholm.
Sweeney said that the Bruins are likely to have around 27 or 28 players between the active roster and taxi squad. How the team's roster shakes out on a game-by-game basis will likely depend on cap considerations and flexibility.
"You have to have roster spots. Some teams have a cap dynamic," said Sweeney. "We all face that same challenge of managing our cap effectively in a unique environment this year, a little different. We hope to be in a position that if a player is playing well through camp but he's on the taxi squad, that we'd be able to put him in the lineup.
"But that might take some roster moves associated with that, with what flexibility you have. Either clearing players through waivers to get them to the taxi squad and/or some players that don't have to clear. There will be some manage associated for all the teams."