Bruins NHL Draft 2016 Recap: Blue Line Addressed, But Top-Four D-Man Still Needed

The Boston Bruins entered the 2016 NHL Draft with seven picks, and they used six of them while trading their seventh-rounder for a 2017 selection.

Here’s a quick recap of Boston’s six draft picks, followed by three takeaways from the event as a whole:

Round 1, No. 14: Charlie McAvoy, D, BU
Round 1, No. 29: Trent Frederic, C, US-NTDP
Round 2, No. 49: Ryan Lindgren, D, US-NTDP
Round 5, No. 135: Joona Koppanen, LW, Finland-JR
Round 5, No. 136: Cameron Clarke, D, NAHL
Round 6, No. 165: Oskar Steen, C, Sweden-JR
Round 7, No. 195: Traded to Florida Panthers for 2017 seventh-round pick

Building Defensive Depth
The Bruins almost certainly were going to take a defenseman with their initial first-round pick at No. 14, and they had their choice of several quality prospects. The B’s decided on Charlie McAvoy, who played well for Boston University last season as a two-way D-man with a high hockey IQ and impressive offensive ability.

McAvoy: Recurring theme with him is he's not only talented but eager & coachable- a good combo. "Guys just like to be around him."- D. Quinn

— Kirk Luedeke (@kluedeke29) June 25, 2016

With his wide body & skating base he gets a lot of power into his stride- pace is important I the modern NHL & McAvoy plays with a lot of it

— Kirk Luedeke (@kluedeke29) June 25, 2016

The Bruins are now well-stocked on the blue line below the NHL level. They have talented young D-men such as Colin Miller, Jakob Zboril, Rob O’Gara, Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon and Matt Grzelcyk in the pipeline.

Strength Down the Middle
The Bruins are set down the middle in their top-six with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci forming one of the best center duos in the league. The bottom-six, however, is a different story.

Noel Acciari was effective in a fourth-line center role, but he’s still not a finished product. Ryan Spooner had a career-high 49 points, but he’s a restricted free agent after next season. Veteran center Chris Kelly currently is an unrestricted free agent and might not return. The Joonas Kemppainen experiment also didn’t work last season.

Boston drafted two centers from this class — Trent Fredric in Round 1 and Oskar Steen in Round 6 — to add more depth down the middle. They join Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, Ryan Fitzgerald and Ryan Donato as recent center draftees for the B’s.

Not Overpaying For a Top-Four Defenseman
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said the price to acquire defensemen on the trade market was both of Boston’s first-round picks and David Pastrnak. That’s a ludicrously high price and Sweeney was smart not to give in to those demands.

With the draft over, Boston could still pursue a top-four defenseman via trade if the market softens, or it could look at the list of unrestricted free agents and make a play there. Brian Campbell, Jason Demers and Dan Hamhuis are among the best UFAs available.

This is the Bruins’ No. 1 position of need, but sacrificing three very good assets doesn’t make much sense. It’s often best to be patient, and the Bruins have a few defensemen, including Brandon Carlo, Colin Miller and Jakub Zboril, who could be knocking on the door at the NHL level in the short-term.