After three years at Notre Dame, including impressive sophomore and junior campaigns, Anders Bjork has turned pro.
On Tuesday, the Boston Bruins announced they had signed the 20-year-old Bjork to a three-year entry-level contract.
The Bruins had been eager -- “We’re doing everything we possibly can,” team president Cam Neely said a few weeks ago -- to get the 2014 fifth-round pick and left-shooting forward under contract following his third season in the college ranks.
There have been suggestions he could step right in to a top-six forward role, which would certainly show just how much the Bruins value Bjork and how much he’s developed at Notre Dame.
Bjork wrapped up his junior year with 21 goals and 52 points in 39 games, which earned him recognition as a Hobey Baker Award finalist. He set single season career highs in goals, assists, points and games played from what was an already impressive sophomore season, in which he averaged a point per game.
“Anders has done a good job of making himself stronger in the weight room, and he’s done a better job at working at the parts of his game that needed to get better,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson told the Boston Globe earlier this month.
“Understanding that he’s got great speed, he needs to be able to utilize it with the puck and without it. He’s grown as a player and he’s maturing as a young man.”
Bjork had just recently wrapped up his experience at the World Hockey Championships. He didn’t register a point in five games for Team USA.