Kid is pretty tough. Many weeks with shoulder brace and was still playing.
The 19-year-old rookie underwent a procedure Feb. 7. He has been rehabbing and working toward coming back stronger for his sophomore campaign.
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The Bruins’ 19-year-old rookie forward, who had his season cut short by right shoulder surgery, has been a regular at Warrior Arena as he rehabs from the Feb. 7 open stabilization procedure.
“It’s all been pretty positive. First couple of weeks, you’re not really doing too much, but it’s been three weeks,” said Poitras, who is
looking at a five-month recovery time, Thursday. “So this last week I got out of the sling and started working out, so it’s been nice to be around here and keep being in the rink and getting physio done.”
“Obviously I was very disappointed,” he said. “You never want to miss a big chunk of time, especially pushing into later in the season, you want to be here, and you want to be playing, but it was the right thing for me to get this done.
“It wasn’t worth it to kind of risk further damage to my shoulder. You’ve got to think about it kind of long term and whether it was in hockey or just having a healthy shoulder for the rest of my life.”
Poitras said the injury started bothering him around Christmas, and he was forced to leave
a Jan. 9 loss at Arizona after absorbing a big hit.
He continued to play through the injury, and though the pain didn’t limit him too much on the ice, he felt the shoulder bark when opponents got physical. Eventually he realized his game was suffering.
“I was wearing a brace, which obviously didn’t let me play exactly how I wanted to play,” said Poitras, who potted 5 goals and had 15 points in 33 games. “But again, when you have a hurt shoulder, it’s always kind of in the back of your mind, so maybe I wasn’t playing the way I wanted to be playing. So it was the right decision to get it fixed.”
In addition to rehabbing, Poitras said, he’ll be training with an eye toward his sophomore campaign.
“I’m going to try to use this time to put on a bit of size, and where I might have been lacking in some strength, this will be a good opportunity for me to make up for that,” he said.
Though his season didn’t end the way he’d like, he views it now as getting a head start on 2024-25.
“I got a good chunk of the season in, and I’ll be here for the rest of the year just learning, so I feel like I wasn’t really expected to make the team and this year was a bonus playing up here and learning and experiencing life in the NHL and living on my own,” Poitras said. “It’s really good to learn that stuff, so I’m more prepared for next season.”
