Bruins prospect Roman Bychkov selected to Russia’s WJC Camp!

Smell that? And not just the smell of people trying not to cook? It’s World Juniors season. And the Bruins are starting to trickle into myriad teams’ world premiere teenager tournament!

One such player is 5th round selection of the 2019 B’s class and Lokomotiv player, Roman Bychkov, as reported by the Russian Federation’s official feed...

...and also an english translation later on for those who don’t read Cyrillic languages.

Bychkov was been primarily playing with Lokomotiv’s junior league team: Loko Yaroslavl, but in order to ensure he got better playing time, his season has started a couple hundred miles south in the Russian minor league with Buran Voronezh (The Voronezh Blizzards, for those curious), where he’s so far played 19 games, and has 4 points. This incidentally, makes him the highest scoring defender on the team.

It should also not suprise you that Voronezh isn’t very good this year if a 19 year old is tied with several forwards for a top spot in scoring. They’re 23rd in the league.

Given the precariousness of the world juniors this year, and especially the high stakes for international teams (basically, you get tested for the virus, and if you have it, you’re just not going.), one has to wonder how many of the players Russia ends up taking that will make it through.

Whatever the case, we wish Roman good luck, and hope he sticks around for the flight to Edmonton!