Braeden Bowman knows how quickly things can change in the NHL.
One minute, he was an unheralded prospect in the Vegas Golden Knights’ system. The next, he was skating on the top line alongside Jack Eichel, taking reps on the top power-play unit and showing he belonged in the greatest hockey league in the world.
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Now comes the hard part.
Nothing is guaranteed in the NHL, and Bowman knows that better than most. He got his opportunity last season. What he wants now is to make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing.
The undrafted forward from Kitchener, Ontario, went from a relatively unknown name in Vegas’ development system to an NHL regular in a matter of weeks. But Bowman isn’t interested in simply making a cameo.
He wants to make the NHL his permanent home.
“That’s my goal, to become a full-time player with the Knights,” Bowman said Tuesday at the team’s annual golf classic at TPC Summerlin, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Danny Webster. “I’m excited. The team’s looking really good again. Vegas always has a strong team, so I’m just trying to establish my identity on the team and we’ll see where it goes.”
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Bowman, 23, received his first NHL call-up after captain Mark Stone broke his finger and missed roughly a month of action.
He didn’t waste the opportunity.
Bowman scored five goals and 11 points in his first 15 NHL games, quickly earning the trust of the coaching staff and opportunities in some of the most valuable minutes a player can receive.
For an undrafted player, it was about as good of an introduction to the NHL as he could have imagined.
But the NHL has a way of humbling everyone eventually.
After his blistering start, Bowman’s production cooled in the second half of the season, as he recorded just 15 points after that point.
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He has the talent and the skill. Now he needs to learn how to handle the demands of an 84-game NHL season and, perhaps more importantly, how to maintain the level that initially earned him a spot on one of the best teams in the NHL.
Now he enters the season with something he didn’t have when he first received that call-up: experience.
And he knows the opportunity is waiting for him again.
The question isn’t whether Bowman can play in the NHL. He already proved he can.
Now, can he prove he can do it every night?
That’s the next step for Bowman.
And the sky is the limit. Imagine if Bowman has a breakout campaign. With a cap hit of just $875,000 through the end of this season, he could end up being one of the biggest steals for the Golden Knights.
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