BOSTON — John Tavares won't be here. Nor will Mark Streit or any other current members of the New York Islanders. And old timers won't see the likes of Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin or Clark Gillies from the Isles' glory days.
The names on the jerseys of the Islanders' prospects on Wednesday night might not be familiar to many Bruins fans, but several of the New York hopefuls are very well known to the Bruins rookies they'll be facing on the ice.
"My linemate from the last few years in Denver is going to be one of their better players in Rhett Rakhshani," said Bruins forward Joe Colborne. "He was [Denver's] captain this year, was in the top 10 for the Hobey Baker so he was one of the best players in college hockey."
Rakhshani was a fourth-round pick of the Islanders in 2006 and signed after the University of Denver's season ended last season. He put up 21-29-50 totals in 41 games last year, topping longtime linemate Colborne's 22-19-41 totals in 39 games. Maybe that doesn't sit well with Colborne, as he's offered to square off with his old buddy on Wednesday night.
"He signed at the end of the year as well, so we've been in touch," said Colborne. "I was trying to get him to drop the gloves with me, but he wasn't having any of that."
While neither ex-college player has much experience scrapping, Rakhshani might be wise in declining that invitation, as he stands just 5-foot-10, 170 pounds against Colborne's 6-foot-5, 216 pounds.
"We'll see," said Colborne with a smile, "but I'm excited to finally play against him after being on his line for so long. It should be a lot of fun."
Colborne plans to give his new teammates a thorough scouting report on his old teammate, including some of Rakhshani's unusual pre-game rituals.
"It will be weird watching him in warmups," said Colborne. "He's kind of a quirky guy, so he's got some funny things he does in warm-ups. I'll be sure to let the guys know about him and hopefully we shut him down."
Bruins forward Jared Knight will be going up against some familiar faces as well, as the Islanders feature a pair of players who spent time with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, the junior team that Knight has played for the past two seasons.
"I was on a team with [defenseman] Tony DeHart," said Knight. "A lot of [the Islanders'] guys played in the O. I don't know if [forward] Justin Taylor is playing tonight. I played with him last year in London. There's going to be a lot of guys from the O."
There's also some big names from the Western Hockey League, led by Nino Niederreiter. The talented forward from the Portland Winterhawks was selected fifth overall in this year's draft, just three spots after the Bruins grabbed Tyler Seguin.
Seguin played his junior hockey in the OHL with Plymouth, but has crossed paths with Niederreiter.
"Nino was my roommate at one of the top prospect games," said Seguin. "He had a nice shootout move that he told me he was going to do the night before. He's a good player."
Bruins defense prospect Ryan Button agrees. He didn't have to face Niederreiter often in the WHL as Button played in the league's Eastern Conference with Prince Albert while Niederreiter's Winterhawks are in the West, but Button knows he'll have to deal with him plenty in the rookie games on Wednesday and Thursday.
"He plays in Portland, so I see him only once a year, but from what I've seen he's a pretty good player," said Button. "I've seen more of their defenseman [Travis] Hamonic. He played in Moose Jaw and Brandon last year and he was a very good Western League defenseman. I'm expecting big things from him. He's a great player. It should be a lot of fun."
