Bruins prospect Letourneau’s ‘confidence back’ at Boston College

BOSTON -- It was in the fourth game of the season, when he scored his second goal of the season, this one coming against RPI, that the tension started to ease, that Dean Letourneau started to see the light.

This, he thought, was him. This was his game. He could do this.

It was a relief.

“I knew it wasn’t just a fluke, that I kind of had that confidence back, and I just kept seeing the offense pick up,” Letourneau said last week at Boston Bruins development camp at Warrior Ice Arena. “From there on out, I knew that, like, OK, I’m back, and I can keep doing this for the whole season.”

Letourneau, a surprise first-round pick of the Bruins in the 2024 NHL Draft at No. 25, had made the jump to Boston College the year prior, a massive step up from Canadian prep school at St. Andrew’s, and the season had gone about as poorly as it could have.

He did not score a single goal in his 2024-25 freshman season, a season in which eyes were on him, evaluating, considering, questioning what the Bruins had been doing taking the extremely raw but extremely tantalizing 6-foot-7 forward in the first round of the draft. He had just three assists in 36 games. But then came his sophomore year, an assist in the second game of the season against Minnesota, a goal in the third, also against Minnesota, and a goal and an assist in that fourth game, at RPI.

“It started to feel more natural,” Letourneau said. “I haven’t had a season like my freshman year, so it started to feel more common as the year went on, just kind of getting in the groove of scoring and putting up points and producing. It’s a great feeling.”

By the end of the 2025-26 season, Letourneau was second on the team in points, with 39 (22 goals, 17 assists) in 36 games, just one goal behind forward James Hagens, also a Bruins draft pick, at the top of the team’s statistics.

He had regained his status as an intriguing prospect, regained his confidence as a hockey player.

“Freshman year was a huge jump for him -- to skip junior hockey altogether, you don’t see that anymore,” BC coach Greg Brown said. “So to jump straight from Canadian prep school and play against older, stronger, faster guys was a big step and it took some adjustment.

“In practice, you saw some of the abilities and the hockey sense and the skill set that didn’t quite translate to the games as a freshman, but you knew that they would.”

BC had faith. Letourneau had faith.

Both were rewarded.

“To Dean’s credit, he put in a huge summer to get stronger and faster and when he added those elements and came back for sophomore year, then the things that we did see were able to come out in games,” Brown said. “With his extra strength, he was able to extend plays longer, able to protect pucks better, be quicker through the neutral zone and all those things allowed him to use his skill set in games. To see that much of a transformation from one year to the next was really impressive and a credit for Dean.”

Letourneau, 20, showed up at his third Bruins development camp at 6-foot-7, 235 pounds, and was mammoth both in terms of size and impact. He shined on the ice, his skills apparent, his stick handling noticeable.

He looked like the kind of prospect that, much like Hagens had last season, could make his NHL debut by the end of next season, even though one year earlier, so many were ready to write him off as a bad gamble taken by Boston.

“He took a step in pretty well all facets of his game,” Bruins director of player development Adam McQuaid said. “I think he just was more accustomed to the pace of college hockey. … I give him a ton of credit because he stayed confident and believed in himself and stuck with the process.

“He came in with high expectations for himself and he had a great year. The big things were using his size a little more, so he’s embracing that, processing the game faster, and then he’s taken steps physically. He’s getting stronger and quicker and all those things, the natural things for a kid his age.”​

The disappointment and frustration of that freshman season have ebbed, as have any thoughts of transferring, ones he briefly entertained amidst the difficulties he experienced. He started to understand how it might have, in fact, helped him, allowing him to focus on the areas that needed work, including on the defensive side, which in turn led Brown to trust him more defensively and give him more offensive opportunities.

There is more to do, of course, work on “puck protection, holding onto pucks more in the ‘O’ zone and just creating a lot more opportunities from the corner and driving to the net … just using my size and my reach and my body to protect pucks and drive to the net.”

It’s an area the Bruins -- as well as BC -- have emphasized, given his unusual stature, for rebounds and tips, for screens, for simply taking up space, and providing opportunities for himself and others.

Like Hagens.

Letourneau went to Hagens’ first home game in Providence, watching him play in the American Hockey League, and attended his second NHL game, against the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden on April 14.

It was, perhaps, a glimpse of his own future, a future that looks suddenly so much closer than it did at this point last year, close enough that he briefly considered turning professional before opting for another year of college hockey, with the NHL looming just beyond.

“Definitely feels a little more closer,” Letourneau said. “Definitely feel a little more ready for the next step. So the goal is to go back to BC and have a more dominant year, and then see what happens from there.”