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Also at play, as new coach Marco Sturm readies to take over, is a roster that grew in center candidates in recent months with the additions of Casey Mittelstadt, Marat Khusnutdinov, Mikey Eyssimont, Sean Kuraly, and Fraser Minten. Beecher’s best pal, Matt Poitras, also is in that field. Presuming Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha anchor the top two lines, Beecher is one of seven contenders who’ll vie for the Nos. 3 and 4 center spots.

“If you were to ask me before last season, I’d say I’m a lot more comfortable at center,” mused Beecher, pondering where he feels he fits best. “But I got more and more reps at the wing last year, so I don’t know if there’s a full answer to that question. Personally, I love being at center — faceoffs are a big part of my game, and I like helping out low in the D-zone, closing guys out, and being a guy who’s relied on.”

The question is whether that’s the best use of Beecher’s legs in this lineup, one that looks as if it will be challenged to score. He has a long stride and can burn, which can be difficult to showcase for centers who, like Beecher, take D-zone coverage as a mandate. Wingers are granted that step or two (sometimes three) advantage in their end, and the best have a knack for blowing the zone at the right moment to generate primo scoring chances. Wingers who do that, and then finish with goals, soon can find themselves making $5 million a year or more.

“With my game and my speed,” said Beecher, asked the best case he could make for a career switch to working along the wall, “I won’t say it takes pressure off the D-zone, but you definitely don’t have as much responsibility — you can get out of the zone a little bit earlier, use your speed, challenge [opposition] wingers wide. That’s something I am trying to do more and more.

Johnny Beecher (center) appeared in 78 games last season.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

“Say there’s a puck down low in the D-zone and the puck goes up to your other wing, if you see that and read it right, you can slash through the middle, get out in the middle zone — if the defenseman is sleeping, then you’re off to a breakaway or a one-on-one with the guy on your hip. So, for me, being on the wing means being a little bit more free and kind of getting to that open ice.”

Sturm wants a fast team. Ditto for the 31 other NHL bench bosses. A roster’s ability or inability to play at pace and execute in all three zones has huge implications on what style a coach preaches.

Every team wants to burn down the house and most have personnel with the legs to start the fire. Among the tricks: optimizing that speed shift after shift.

In his 130 NHL games, Beecher’s offensive production stands at a modest 10-11–21. He went 3-8–11 in 78 games last season, leaving him vulnerable to a trade or perhaps not being tendered a contract this summer. The new deal for that equally modest $900,000 has to be interpreted as a vote of confidence by general manager Don Sweeney and a chance for Beecher to establish himself as a full-time resident among the club’s dozen forwards.

Beecher, remember, was viewed as somewhat of a project when drafted six years ago at the bottom of Round 1. He was part of a dynamic US National Team Development Program in 2018-19 that saw seven of his teammates taken ahead of him in that draft — led by Jack Hughes (No. 1, Devils) and fellow pivot Alex Turcotte (No. 5, Kings), who often was under Sturm’s tutelage at AHL Ontario.

Other USNTDP members picked ahead of Beecher were: Trevor Zegras (No. 9, Ducks), Matt Boldy (No. 12, Wild), Spencer Knight (No. 13, Panthers), Cam York (No. 14, Flyers), and Cole Caufield (No. 15, Canadiens). Fifteen stops later, enamored by his size, stride, and reach, the Bruins nabbed Beecher.

“I was a defensive forward for that [national] team,” recalled Beecher. “You know, a center who killed penalties, and that was kind of my role there because we had guys like Hughesie, Zegras, Caufield, all goal scorers and skill guys. Even going to Michigan (NCAA), one of my main roles was being a guy they can rely on — whether it was PK or D-zone draws.

“I never really thought I was going to show up in the NHL one day and put up crazy numbers, but it was kind of find something I’m good at and try to do that better than other people. I feel I’ve done a pretty good job of that so far, and hopefully my game continues to grow, move up the lineup, but right now, I’m not upset about anything. I’m living out my dream as an NHL hockey player.”

He also understands that every forward aspires to be, say, the next David Pastrnak, pouring in 40-50 goals and 100 points each season. It’s particularly the expectation that often comes with being drafted in Round 1, no matter what game DNA/identity a player has established in the years leading up to a draft stocked by 18-year-old dreamers.

“I think that’s something, a lot of kids nowadays, everyone wants to be a goal scorer,” Beecher said. “But I think it’s a matter of finding what you’re good at, then try to develop that as much as you can and try to develop the other parts of your game. I mean, you can have a long NHL career winning faceoffs.”

While serving both as center and wing last season, Beecher finished third on the Bruins for faceoff wins (282), behind Lindholm (759) and Zacha (393). Beecher’s solid win rate of 52 percent wasn’t far off their lead, Lindholm with 55.2 percent and Zacha 53.2. League-wide, 108 forwards finished with 280 or more wins, and fewer than half (49) won at a better rate than Beecher.

One big change for Beecher already has taken place ahead of the new season. He and Poitras, constant companions, are “finally moving on from each other, I’m getting away from him,” Beecher said with a big smile. He’ll now live in the Seaport with his girlfriend, and Poitras will share a place with Minten.

“We had a great time the last couple of years, living together,” said Beecher. “But it was time to move. The last two years, when we were both up on the team — across a whole week, we might have been apart from each other for 20 minutes. Apartment, bus, plane, on the road. We had a great time and he’s one of my best buddies now, but it was time to split up.”

NO CHANGING ON THE FLY

Penguins’ Muse will do it his way

Dan Muse, hired in June as the Penguins’ new coach, long ago played hockey at Canton High (Class of 2000), followed by four seasons at Stonehill College (2005). He taught history for a year at Archbishop Williams and figured his career path was shaping up the day he was accepted into Suffolk Law School.

But hockey then dragged Muse from the prospect of a life navigating the halls of justice to one living behind a bench between the blue lines.

“I remember getting into Suffolk Law,” said Muse, reached by telephone, “and I walked out of the open house and I decided I wasn’t going to go to law school — I wanted to coach hockey. Honestly, it was because I loved teaching, and loved being in the classroom, and I was always very passionate about hockey. I just decided I wanted to teach hockey full time.“

Penguins coach Dan Muse (right) is 43. Penguins general manager Kyle Dumas is at left.Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Muse, 43, is now charged with teaching the Penguins how to become Stanley Cup contenders again. He brings some 20 years of coaching experience to the Steel City. Only weeks after graduating from Stonehill, where he compiled a modest 5-6–11 line in his four Division 3 seasons, he began his long path to a top job in the NHL by being one of Paul Cannata’s assistant coaches at Milton Academy.

Some 20 years later, after building a coaching dossier that included a long stint at Yale as one of Keith Allain’s assistants, and similar NHL tours assisting fellow Bay Stater Peter Laviolette with the Predators and Rangers, Muse finally landed his first top NHL job with the Penguins.

“I don’t think that crossed my mind the day I got my diploma at Stonehill,” said Muse, chuckling as he noted the “journey” that led him to where he is today. “But I wouldn’t change anything. All these experiences have added up and I feel very fortunate. Even going back to Stonehill, I had to work really hard just to play college hockey there, in any capacity. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. It’s all part of my experience and my journey.”

Muse, whose parents moved the family to Canton when he was in the eighth grade, will enter this season as one of three Bay State boys directing NHL benches.

Marshfield’s Mike Sullivan, the two-time Cup-winning coach Muse is succeeding in Pittsburgh, is about to begin his new gig as the Rangers’ coach. Ryan Warsofsky, once a Marshfield High defenseman, will be back for a third season as the Sharks’ bench boss. Warsofsky this spring directed Team USA to the World Championship gold medal in Sweden.

In only his fourth season of coaching, Muse was an assistant at Sacred Heart University. One of his defensemen: Warsofsky.

A modest Uber fee would cover the trip from Muse’s boyhood home in Canton to the Sullivan and Warsofsky childhood homes in Marshfield.

“It’s such a small world,” said Muse. “And I’m so happy for Ryan. It’s been so cool to see his journey, and we’ve been able to stay in touch. We’ve seen each other after games, and he sent me a text right after I got this job. I’ve done the same after the great accomplishments he’s had — he is such a great person from a great family; really cool to see his journey, too.”

A property of the Fenway Sports Group, the Penguins, with an aging roster, in 2024-25 missed the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season, leading to Sullivan’s dismissal. They are a long way from the powerhouse days when Sulivan led them to back-to-back Cup titles in 2016 and ‘17.

Muse will take over amid the Penguins’ longest playoff drought since 2003-06. As a rookie bench boss, he’ll be charged with reshaping the efforts of a lineup that includes veteran headliners Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson. That would be a daunting task for a new guy with, say, a decade or more as the guy calling the shots.

How will Muse approach the task? By being the same guy, he said, that he’s been for the 20 yeas that led him to this opportunity.

“I kind of took that approach going through the interview process,” said Muse, who was hired by GM Kyle Dubas, ex- of the Maple Leafs’ front office. “I’ve taken that approach as I’ve continued to meet with [the players]. It’s the same approach I’ll take with everything I’ll do moving forward — I feel very humbled and very blessed to have this opportunity, but I also walk into it knowing that I was presented this opportunity through a process where I was myself. So, why change? Why do anything different?”

Noting his respect for players who’ve been with the Penguins a long time — ”Iconic players,” he said, “like Crosby and Malkin and Letang, along with guys like [Bryan] Rust and [Rickard] Rakell and Karlsson and everyone else” — he simply wants to keep getting better.

“I’m not going to change what got me here,” Muse added. “That’s been my approach and it seems to work, so I’ll keep being myself.”

Gerard Gallant, last seen behind an NHL bench when his 2023-23 Rangers were bounced in Round 1 of the playoffs by the Devils, was named bench boss of the KHL’s Shanghai Dragons (previously Kunlun Red Star, based in Beijing). Gallant, 61, ranks 54th in the NHL for games coached (705), just a tick behind Fred “The Fog” Shero (734) … Two former Bruins forwards also coaching in the KHL this season: Dmitri Kvartalnov — once a proud member of the Bonanza Line — and Alexei Zhamnov, who had a very brief run (24 games) with the Black and Gold after signing a rich UFA deal in the summer of 2005. Kvartalnov, 59, is about to begin his second year behind the bench for Dynamo Minsk. Zhamnov, 54, is back as bench boss with Spartak Moscow … Ex-Bruin Glen “Muzz” Murray, whose voice in the Kings’ front office played a large part in Marco Sturm coming aboard there as an assistant coach in 2018, has his eye on one day becoming an NHL GM. “It would have to be the right situation, obviously, but yes, short answer is yes.” It was Chris Nilan, briefly one of Murray’s Black and Gold teammates, who tagged him with the “Muzz” moniker that remains to this day. Murray, 19, was called up for OHL Sudbury for five games in 1991-92. “Knuckles just stared me up and down,” said Murray, recalling his first days in the Bruins’ dressing room. “I was just this skinny kid, had no idea, called up for a game in Quebec. I knew who Chris Nilan was and he just stared at me, like, ‘Who’s this little kid?’ I’m just standing there, silent, waiting for him to say something and he goes, ‘You’re Muzz.’ And that was it, ‘You’re Muzz,’ and he walked away. And I was like, ‘OK, I guess I’m Muzz,’ and that was it. It stuck.”

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.