The Boston Bruins have a solid foundation in place after reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in nine seasons, so the 2019 NHL Draft wasn’t quite as important for them as it was for some other teams embarking on rebuilds.
The draft offers an opportunity to add young talent to the pipeline though, and the B’s picked up a few intriguing long-term assets over the weekend.
That said, ESPN’s Chris Peters believes Boston could have done more with the five picks it owned in the seven-round draft, and he therefore gave the Bruins a “C-” grade. Only the Columbus Blue Jackets (“D”) received a worse mark from Peters, who pointed to first-round selection John Beecher as his “favorite pick” of the Bruins’ 2019 draft class.
Here’s more from Peters:
Not having a second-round pick might lead a team to reach a little if they have a late first. That seemed to be the case with the Bruins and Beecher. Sure, he has a lot of potential and is an incredible skater, but he was No. 41 on my rankings. The back half of that first round right on into the second was so tightly packed with talent that I don’t really hold it against them, though.
However, I don’t think the Bruins made an especially big impact on their prospect pool with their later picks.
In addition to drafting Beecher, an 18-year-old forward from the United States Development Team Program, with the 30th overall pick in Round 1, the Bruins nabbed Quinn Olson (Okotoks, AJHL) in the third round, Roman Bychkov (Yaroslavl 2, Russia Jr.) in the fifth round, Matias Mantykivi (Saipa Jr., Finland Jr.) in the sixth round and Jake Schmaltz (Chicago, USHL) in the seventh round.
