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The picks are in, and now it’s time to break things down.
On Sunday, six NESN analysts took part in the All-Time Bruins Fantasy Draft, building elite teams from a pool of the top Boston Bruins of all-time.
So, who has the best team? Seeing as a large chunk of these players are retired, we’ll never know for sure outside of speculation. As such, we’ll make a case for each analyst as to why the team they built is the best.
Watch Highlights From Bruins’ On-Ice Workout, Which Featured Torey Krug’s Return
Barry Pederson — The P’s
Line 1: Rick Middleton — Jean Ratelle — Ken R. Hodge
Line 2: Ken Hodge — Derek Sanderson — Keith Crowder
D Pair 1: Bobby Orr, Brad Park
D Pair 2: Gord Kluzak, Gary Doak
Goalie: Gerry Cheevers
Why his team’s the best: That top defensive pairing is awesome with Bobby Orr and Brad Park, plus there’s so much skill on that top line. And it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Gerry Cheevers in net, either.
Billy Jaffe — Team Make Believes
Line 1: Brad Marchand — Adam Oates — David Pastrnak
Line 2: Charlie Simmer — Tyler Seguin — Mark Recchi
D Pair 1: Ray Bourque, Glen Wesley
D Pair 2: Mike Milbury, Babe Siebert
Goalie: Terry Sawchuk
Why his team’s the best: There’s so much scoring prowess up front that any potential shortcomings in the back end could be made up by the millions of goals this forward group could bury.
Jack Edwards — The Tumbling Muffins
Line 1: Wayne Cashman — Patrice Bergeron — John McKenzie
Line 2: Andy Brickley — Milt Schmidt — Ed Westfall
D Pair 1: Dit Clapper, Lionel Hitchman
D Pair 2: Don Sweeney, Garry Galley
Goalie: Tim Thomas
Why his team’s the best: Defense. Defense. Defense. Patrice Bergeron certainly would anchor some sound defensive play up front, while there’s nice depth in the back end. Plus, anyone that gets past all those layers of defense would have to burn Tim Thomas, which isn’t necessarily the easiest of tasks.
Andy Brickley — Team Irrelevant
Line 1: Milan Lucic — Joe Thornton — Phil Kessel
Line 2: Sergei Samsonov — Marc Savard — Bill Guerin
D Pair 1: Eddie Shore, Torey Krug
D Pair 2: Mike O’Connell, Hal Gill
Goalie: Tuukka Rask
Why his team’s the best: What fun those two lines would be, plus there’s plenty of skill at the blue line with that Eddie Shore-Torey Krug top pairing. This is just an overall well-balanced team that also has the benefit of Tuukka Rask in net.
Andrew Raycroft — Rayzor’s Edge
Line 1: Johnny Bucyk — Peter McNab — Terry O’Reilly
Line 2: P.J. Axelsson — David Krejci — Glen Murray
D Pair 1: Zdeno Chara, Fern Flaman
D Pair 2: Rick Smith, Ted Green
Goalie: Tiny Thompson
Why his team’s the best: This team could grind you to death between Johnny Bucyk, Terry O’Reilly and Zdeno Chara, among others. Even if they aren’t the most offensively gifted team of the bunch, they most certainly would be an absolute bear to play against.
Dale Arnold — The 67’s
Line 1: Woody Dumart — Phil Esposito — Cam Neely
Line 2: Ken Linseman — Barry Pederson — Jason Allison
D Pair 1: Bill Quackenbush, Leo Boivin
D Pair 2: Don Awrey, Dallas Smith
Goalie: Frank Brimsek
Why his team’s the best: Dale appeared to take, by and large, a group of guys that mostly are underrated by the fanbase at this point. However, that’s not so in the case of Phil Esposito and Cam Neely, two legends who most certainly could lead a winning effort of guys that, like Raycroft’s team, could wear you down for 60-plus minutes.
