When Jake DeBrusk requested a trade out of Boston in late November, most thought the 25-year-old effectively tipped the hourglass on his Bruins tenure.
But not only did the Bruins keep DeBrusk in house through the March 21 NHL trade deadline. The organization also watched the fifth-year pro take his game to the next level over the final month-plus of Boston's 2021-22 season. And as it turns out, those might not have been DeBrusk's final weeks in a B's uniform.
Meeting with the media in wake of the Bruins' season-ending loss Saturday, DeBrusk danced around a question about the aforementioned request but expressed a willingness to stick around with the Black and Gold.
"I haven't thought about it, to be honest with you," DeBrusk told reporters Monday, per WEEI. "It was kind of nice to not think about it there since the deadline. I've been spending lots of time with the boys here. It's been two days. I'll go back home with my family and kind of go over the year more thoroughly and then kind of make my call from there. That's kind of where I'm at."
DeBrusk continued: "Yeah. I don't think I would've signed something like that (two-year extension) if I wasn't OK with that. I think that obviously it was crazy circumstances around that time especially, but like you said, I'm signed for another two years. I was excited to sign that, and I think my game took off after that, as well. I think that's when, like I said earlier, I didn't have to answer these questions for a while, so it was kind of nice. Sure enough, my game came around."
Of course, DeBrusk isn't the only Bruin with an uncertain future in Boston. B's fans are anxiously waiting for Patrice Bergeron to make a decision about what he wants to do next.