2024 Player Ratings: Oskar Steen’s “last call”

The rating of Oskar Steen in 2024: 3.6

I am aware that there is always a Providence/Boston ‘tweener like this one, who always appears to be on the verge of NHL regularity. Jack Studnicka and Ryan Spooner come to mind.

Alex Khokhlachev, Peter Cehlarik, the list goes on. I’ll start with this because there is always someone who says that this will be that guy’s year, the breakthrough campaign, before a season even begins.

Even though I wasn’t as enthusiastic about Oskar Steen as I was about my man Peter Cehlarik, I was one of the people here in September 2023 who thought that Steen would have a big season despite having a lot of forwards in the bottom six.

I was incorrect, if you believe me! Steen got a good look because he spent nearly half of the regular season in Boston. However, he was unable to have much of an impact in the end, and as a result, his NHL career is over (at least for the time being).

Steen was expected to bring energy and some physicality as a player in the bottom six, which he did adequately. However, the remainder of his game was simply absent.

A fourth-line grinder’s lack of high-end production can be tolerated, but finishing last in the NHL rarely works out. Steen last played for the Bruins on February 19, when they lost to Seattle.

He skated in under eight minutes before being waived. The Swede played 24 games in the AHL and scored 12 goals and contributed 4 assists, but he didn’t exactly shine.

He ended up being a guy who was good enough for the AHL but probably not good enough for regular NHL duty during his time in North America.

He will now return to his home country to play for Färjestad BK, the club where he spent the majority of his career before moving to North America. Greetings, Quadzilla.