When it comes to highly awaited Bruins prospects, names like Spooner, Khokhlachev or Knight will be mentioned. Before tonights season opener against Philadelphia I wanna focus on a guy who just sneaked himself into tonights roster.
Allow me. Craig Cunningham, with 25 goals in 75 AHL games last season's topscorer of the Providence Bruins. Since beeing drafted in the fourth round (97th overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft, the 23-year-old appeared in 226 games with Providence, putting up 70 goals and 59 assists for a total of 129 points. His game total for the Bruins AHL affiliate has him ranked 12th overall, just 53 games behind all-time leader Jay Henderson.
Born and raised in British Columbia, Cunningham joined WHL's Vancouver Giants in 2006, appearing in 48 games on the Memorial Cup winning team lead by Assistant Captain Milan Lucic. He constantly worked his way up on the team, finishing the 2009-2010 season as the teams topscorer with 97 points, including 37 goals. That and a nice playoff-run (24 points in just 16 games) earned him the Captaincy for the upcoming season.
He split time between the Giants (45 points in 36 games) and the Portland Winterhawks (42 points in 35 games) for his last WHL season, before joining Providence in the fall of 2011.
Just two years later, Cunningham made his NHL debut in a 2-0 home victory over the Calgary Flames, where he recorded 4 shots.
The 23-year old appeared in his second career NHL game on April 13 this year against the New Jersey Devils. Besides just 10:42 of ice-time, Cunningham finished with a better (43 %) faceoff percentage as Centers Carl Söderberg (38 %) and Gregory Campbell (25 %).
At the start of this seasons training camp, no one really had him making the team.
The natural winger dressed up for only 2 preseason games, one against the Capitals in which he finished with team leading 6 hits, 14:20 of icetime and the 2nd best faceoff-percentage at 69 %.
Ever since playing on a different team, Cunnigham has improved himself and his point totals over the years. His coaches describe him as "good in every area of the game, but without a particular strength", noticing that this might be the main reason why he hasn't made the NHL roster yet unlike former Giants teammates Brendan Gallagher or Cody Franson.
Injuries from Campbell and David Krejci have the right winger starting the season as 4th line Center, a role in which he should easily fit with his faceoff abilities. Cunningham will have at least 3 games to show how far his progression is, as Krejci is listed as injured-reserve until Sunday. If he can impress Coach Claude Julien and his staff, they might continue with him as 4th line RW at the sacrifice of tough guy Bobby Robins.
There hasn't been a step backwards in Craig Cunninghams career yet and his determination will surely lead him into the NHL, even if management decides to send him back to Providence.
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