By: Brandon Murdock | Follow me on Twitter/X @Brandonmurdoc11
Since being acquired from the Colorado Avalanche, Boston Bruins prospect Will Zellers has flat-out performed. Over the past six months, he has skyrocketed to one of the most exciting prospects in the Bruins system, alongside James Hagens.
Whether at the University of North Dakota or on the United States World Junior team, Zellers has shown he belongs as a freshman. This week, Zellers added some more hardware to the trophy cabinet.
On Monday, Zellers, alongside three of his North Dakota teammates, was named to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference all-rookie team. This goes along with him winning the NCHC November rookie of the month as well as rookie of the week honors this season—a great feat for the Maple Grove, Minnesota native.
This comes from Zellers having a goal and two assists in Saturday’s 5-1 quarterfinal win over the Omaha Mavericks. The win sent North Dakota to the NCHC semi-finals, where they will play the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.
Zellers has been a goal-scoring machine for the Fighting Hawks this season, co-leading the team with 18 goals. For every goal he scores, he can also be a playmaker, recording 12 assists, good for 30 points on the season. This places Zellers fourth on the team in points.
His conference stats have also been impressive as he is near a point-per-game player. Recording a conference-rookie high in goals with 13, as well as adding seven assists for 20 points, in just 24 games played.
He has shown the ability to unleash a wicked one-timer or a perfectly placed snipe to get his goals. This has led him to be a force on the power-play unit, recording 7 of his goals from the man-advantage. Imagine this on the other side of David Pastrnak with Hagens feeding them pucks.
He has also shown to be clutch early on in his career, securing six game-winning goals, including an overtime winner. Five of these six goals have come in conference play.
Zellers’ impressive rookie campaign has not only been exciting for the North Dakota fan base but also for the Bruins’. He has shown that he can be the type of high-end goal scorer that the Bruins have constantly been looking for to pair with Pastrnak.
If you think these numbers are impressive, look at what Zellers did at the World Junior Championship this year. Despite not making the team initially, he had a huge impact in just five games, recording 5 goals and 3 assists and finishing +6. He was easily one of the best players on Team USA.
While it is unclear how long Zellers will stay in North Dakota after this tremendous freshman campaign, one thing is certain: he will continue to wire pucks and put fear into goaltenders. For now, he will continue to play for an NCHC championship and try to help North Dakota win its ninth national championship. This should be the first of many major awards for Zellers, and Bruins Nation will certainly be keeping a close eye on him as he continues to develop.
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