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The Boston Bruins fantasy draft is over — so, who won?
Six NESN analysts hit their respective war rooms Sunday for the All-Time Bruins Fantasy Draft, eventually emerging with hand-picked teams featuring the best players in team history. You can click here for full breakdowns of each team.
As you might expect, each analyst believes they picked the best team. We asked each of them to make their case.
Watch Highlights From Bruins’ On-Ice Workout, Which Featured Torey Krug’s Return
Barry Pederson — The P’s
“Great teams are built from the back side. So, I got the greatest player of all time with (Bobby) Orr … (Brad) Park, (Gord) Kluzak and (Gary Doak). And then I go back to the goaltender position if they ever have a breakdown in goal and I got (Gerry Cheevers). Up front I got (Rick Middleton) with (Jean Ratelle) — this is the best team I’ve seen on the Bruins list so far today.”
Billy Jaffe — Team Make Believes
“Team Make Believes is hands down the most balanced. It’s like that perfect barbecue sauce: It’s got that great blend of spice and sweet and everything. You take Raymond Bourque, start with that, add another Hall of Famer like Babe Siebert on the back. Another Hall of Famer in goal in Terry Sawchuk. Adam Oates up front. Maybe the greatest left wing in the game right now in Brad Marchand. Oh, throw in a Mark Recchi and a Charlie Simmer … this team has got it all. And I forgot … carb load with (David Pastrnak).”
Jack Edwards — The Tumbling Muffins
“Next time you go to TD Garden, take a look skyward and you’ll see all kinds of tumbling muffin names up there, like our first D-pair of (Lionel) Hitchman and (Dit) Clapper. And then we got Don Sweeney and Garry Galley to make trouble for opposing forwards. Tim Thomas, the most decorated goalie of all time for the Boston Bruins, and look at the strength down the middle on the forwards: Patrice Bergeron and Milt Schmidt — there isn’t a one-two punch that matches that.”
Andy Brickley — Team Irrelevant
“When you take a look at my team, the theory was I needed a franchise defenseman, I needed a franchise center, I needed a franchise goaltender — those were my first three picks. And when you look at that with Eddie Shore, Joe Thornton and Tuukka Rask, I think those boxes were checked. I needed creativity up front with Thornton, I got (Marc) Savard to help him — both left shots that got size, got creativity. I got finish on the right side in (Phil) Kessel, easily a 40-goal guy, maybe more. Bill Guerin – -size, scoring ability. You wanna rough it up a little bit? I got Milan Lucic on the left. And I got a “wild card” kinda player, even though he’s not in the “wild card” category: Sergei Samsonov, who can really do just about anything on the ice. And I got enough on the back end to defend, and maybe one of the best quarterbacks on the power play in Torey Krug.”
Andrew Raycroft — Rayzor’s Edge
“Well, we’ve seen what Zdeno Chara has been able to do with this Boston Bruins team, and that’s what he’s going to do for my team. … He’s the leader, he’s the captain on the back end. He will soon be in the rafters along with two other guys that are on my team: “Chief” Johnny Bucyk and “Taz” Terry O’Reilly. And to go with my second line of (P.J. Axelsson), (David) Krejci and (Glen Murray). My lineup’s not even close. And not to mention, 11th-round pick Tiny Thompson, who up until a few months ago was the leader for this franchise in wins.”
Dale Arnold — The 67’s
“When I look at Team 67s … by my quick count, and I’m just looking here real quick, of the 11 guys I have, six are already in the Hall of Fame: (Frank) Brimsek, (Bill) Quackenbush, (Leo) Boivin, (Phil) Esposito, (Cam) Neely, (Woody) Dumart. And a bunch of other guys who can help fill it out as well. I like my team, I know some of the names are a little old for some of our fans to remember, but trust me: Look it up and see what some of these guys did. This is a pretty good squad, and there are only six Hall of Famers on it.”
