NHL Draft Live Blog: Bruins Round Out Draft by Taking Goalie Lars Volden in Sixth Round

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Jun 25, 2011

NHL Draft Live Blog: Bruins Round Out Draft by Taking Goalie Lars Volden in Sixth Round 2:30 p.m.: The 2011 NHL Entry Draft is officially in the books, with Chicago selecting Swedish goalie Johan Mattsson with the final pick of teh seventh round.

The Blackhawks got to select Mr. Irrelevant after acquiring that pick from the Bruins for a seventh-rounder in last year's draft.

2:10 p.m.: The Bruins rounded out their draft by taking goalie Lars Volden with the final pick of the sixth round.

Volden is from Solo, Norway, but plays in Finland and is more along the lines of typical Finnish butterfly goalie. Volden also has the size the Bruins prefer in their netminders, as he's 6-foot-3, 198 pounds.

1:40 p.m.: Another New England connection is selected, with goalie Stephen Michalek going to Minnesota at 161.

Michalek hails from Hartford and will be attending Harvard next year. He had a 3.95 GAA and .918 save percentage, making over 1,000 saves despite being peppered nightly for a Loomis-Chaffee squad that finished 3-20-2. 

1:29 p.m.: The Bruins go local to close out the fifth round, taking Milton Academy defenseman Rob O'Gara with the 151st pick to close out the round.

O'Gara hails from Massapequa, N.Y. but came to the Bay State for high school. He was the 107th rated North American skater in NHL Central Scouting after posting 2-7-9 totals in 30 games with Milton Academy. He's got good size at 6-foot-3, 185 pounds.

1:22 p.m.: The Red Wings grab a player with New England ties at 145, picking Philippe Hudon with the first of back-to-back picks in the fifth round.

Hudon is from Montreal, but played this year at Choate-Rosemary School in Connecticut.

1:06 p.m.: The Bruins close out the fourth round by going outside the OHL for the first time, taking forward Brian Ferlin with the 121st pick.

Ferlin is a Jacksonville, Florida natve who had 25-48-73 totals last year with the Indiana Ice of the USHL.

12:59 p.m.: And just like that, the Bay State gets on the board to cut into Texas' lead. Norfolk native Garrett Noonan goes to Nashville at 112.

The 6-foot-2 defenseman had 4-11-15 totals in 38 games at Boston University this past season.

12:55 p.m.: With Colin Jacobs going to Buffalo at 107, that's now three Texas-born players selected so far. Massachusetts is still waiting for its first true homegrown player to be taken.

12:40 p.m.: The draft continues to roll on, as we're now well into the fourth round. The Bruins won't pick again until the final selection of this round at No. 121.

Boston's last selection, Anthony Camara, is a feisty forward who tied for seventh in the OHL with 16 fighting majors last year, then added three more in the playoffs. He didn't put up a lot of points, but he's a good skater who could play an agitating role with the ability to back it up.

12:18 p.m.: The Bruins stay in the OHL again in the third round, taking Saginaw left wing Anthony Camara at No. 81.

Camara had just 8-9-17 totals in 64 games, but did put up 132 penalty minutes. He's just 6-foot, 194 pounds though, so he's not a true heavyweight sizewise.

12:04 p.m.: Less than 10 picks away from the Bruins' next selection at No. 81. That will actually be the 80th pick of the draft, as New Jersey had to forfeit its third-rounder as part of the punishment for its cap circumvention in its initial deal with Ilya Kovalchuk.

11:52 a.m.: The second round is in the books, with Ottawa closing out the round by taking local junior star Shane Prince, a center for the Ottawa 67s of the OHL with the pick they acquired from Boston for Chris Kelly.

11:40 a.m.: The second round is flying by, and it's been a good round so far for Terriers. Left wing Matthew Nieto was the second Boston University skater taken this round, as he goes to San Jose at No. 47.

Nieto will be closer to home in San Jose than he is in Boston, as he hails from Long Beach, Cal.

11:22 a.m.: The Bruins stay in the OHL for their second pick, taking Russian forward Alexander Khokhlachev at No. 40.

Khokhlachev is from Moscow, but played his junior hockey in North America with Windsor.

11:19 a.m.: The Blackhawks dip into the local waters with the 36th pick, taking Boston University defenseman Adam Clendening.

11:15 a.m.: The Edmonton Oilers kick off the second round by selecting defenseman David Musil, son of former NHL blueliner Frank Musil.

11 a.m.: Day 2 of the draft is just about to begin, but before the start of the second round the Bruins did deliver a bit of news.

Assistant general manager Don Sweeney announced that Bruce Cassidy will be the head coach for the club's AHL affiliate in Providence next season. He replaces Rob Murray, who has been offered a chance to stay in the organization in another capacity.

6 a.m.: While the rest of the league was wheeling and dealing, the Bruins stood pat on the first day of the draft, nabbing talented defenseman Dougie Hamilton with the ninth overall pick Friday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Elsewhere, five trades went down involving five players and 10 picks, including five first-round selections used Friday night. Both draft picks the Bruins sent to Toronto in the Tomas Kaberle deal were moved as well, with the Leafs shipping the 30th overall pick, plus the 39th, to Anaheim to take Tyler Biggs at No. 22 and also sending Boston's 2012 second-rounder to Colorado for veteran defenseman John-Michael Liles.

Saturday promises to be just as eventful as Rounds 2-7 are held to complete the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. The Bruins go into the day holding five more picks, beginning with the 40th overall selection. They acquired that from Minnesota during the 2009-10 season as part of the Chuck Kobasew deal. The Bruins gave up their own second-round this season to Ottawa for Chris Kelly.

The Bruins also have a pick in the third round (No. 81) despite trading away their own pick. They gave that up to Florida as part of the Nathan Horton trade, but got back a third-rounder from Phoenix as part of the Derek Morris deal. The Bruins also own their own picks in the fourth (121), fifth (151) and sixth (181), but traded their seventh-rounder to Chicago for a seventh-rounder last year (Zach Trotman).

With a defenseman in the fold already in Hamilton, the Bruins could go in a number of different directions with their remaining picks.

"Yeah, a little bit yeah," Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said when asked if landing Hamilton could change their approach on Day 2 of the draft. "We basically said going in that if we had gotten these certain players, and he was one of them, that we'd kind of go a different way the rest of the way. So yeah, it does."

One area the Bruins may look to address is their goaltending depth. While there are no immediate concerns with Tim Thomas coming off a historic season and Tuukka Rask waiting in the wings, there's not much else in the pipeline at that position. Chiarelli said Friday that the club will not make a qualifying offer on Matt Dalton and Anton Khudobin, who practiced with the big club throughout the postseason, but was expected to sign in Russia or possibly get a chance to serve as a backup elsewhere in the NHL. 

"We've got Michael Hutchinson, I think he was a third-rounder, who is coming, but you know, we really have to shore up that end of it," Chiarelli admitted. "We always have a separate goalie list and we integrate it separately, like it's a list aside from the main list. And we kind of feel who we should pick and we may go to that list a little earlier."

While the first round garners most of the attention, what happens on Day 2 of the draft can be even more important. The Bruins' Cup-winning squad featured a trio of key second-round picks in Milan Lucic (2006), David Krejci (2004) and Patrice Bergeron (2003), while Brad Marchand was a third-rounder in 2006.

Who will the Bruins land in the later rounds this year? Stay here for updates on all the action from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul when the second round starts at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. local).

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