The Boston Bruins opened rookie camp on Friday, and 23-year-old Attilio Biasca is one step closer to living out his dream.
Biasca spent three seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) but went undrafted before returning home to Switzerland. He is coming off a Swiss league championship with Fribourg-Gottéron and helped Switzerland win silver at the IIHF World Championship before signing a two-year deal with the Bruins in June.
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“[The NHL] was always a dream for me,” Biasca said after the first rookie camp session. “[Fribourg-Gottéron] was a great team.
I’m going to miss the guys for sure, especially how we ended it. It’s always a memory when you finish off like that, that’s for sure, but it’s a new chapter for me now, and I’m ready to go.”
The decision to sign in Boston came less than two weeks after Biasca was handed his silver medal. At the tournament, the 23-year-old played on the top line with New Jersey Devils forwards Timo Meier and Nico Hischier.
He finished with a goal and two assists in 10 games.
The Bruins were not the only team interested in Biasca after the tournament, but he believed his best opportunity was with the black and gold.
“After the World Championships, I talked to my agent, and he told me it was a couple teams [interested]. And then, for me, it was Boston, because the opportunity that I’m gonna get and that I’m gonna show that I [belong] here.”
Biasca was named the Swiss league’s Most Improved Player last season. He finished second on his team with 15 goals and jumped from 10 points (5-5–10) to 27 (15-12–27).
He also added four more points (3-1–4) in 14 playoff games.
“Just fast, a fast skater that is aggressive on the forecheck. Likes to play on the inside,” Biasca said about his game.
“I’m more of a power forward. I like to forecheck, but scoring goals too, like, important goals.
I did it last year; I know how to make a difference, and that’s what I’m going to bring here.”
“You have to prove, for sure, that you belong here, that I earned this contract, that I really worked hard the last couple of years. I had tough times too, but you grow as a player and as a person too,” Biasca said.
“That’s going to help me now for this training camp to show who I am and that I belong here.”
The 23-year-old also acknowledged that the smaller North American rink is his biggest adjustment, pointing to how quickly pressure comes when he is in the corner. However, he knows the smaller ice from his time in the QMJHL and considers himself a “quick adjuster.”
Biasca got his first chance to show what he can do at an NHL rookie camp on Friday. Providence Bruins head coach Trent Whitfield, who got to see him on ice for the first time, was impressed.
“That was my first viewing of him today. I thought he was really good.
I thought he had a really good day,” Whitfield said. “On days like today, you like to see them get up and down the ice, how they’re moving.
You get them in the smaller area games, do they come up with the pucks? Are they willing to go get the pucks in the corners and come out with them?
I thought he did that a fair bit in those two smaller area games we played today. So that’s real encouraging.”
It was only the first day of rookie camp, but for Biasca, it was the first opportunity with the Bruins to show that he belongs. He is signed through the 2027-28 season with a cap hit of $980,000.
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