The Boston Bruins were busy on Friday, adding six players to their ranks through the second day of the NHL Entry Draft.
Boston added five skaters and a goalie throughout day two, with their final selection — defenseman Jackson Edward — being drafted by his favorite team.
“It’s been pretty exciting, Boston was my favorite team growing up,” Edward said in his post-draft media availability, per team provided transcripts. “It’s pretty exciting to be drafted by them, and obviously such a good franchise. It’s been a lot, I haven’t really wrapped my mind around it yet, but it’s pretty exciting.”
Edward, a native of Toronto, says he was drawn to the Bruins through his fandom of former captain Zdeno Chara. As he got older though, Edward says Brad Marchand became one of his favorite players. That led to a natural follow up question of whether he believes his game more closely resembles that of Chara or Marchand. His answer? Why not both.
“Definitely more Marchand, but with the bigger body,” Edward said.
The 18-year-old is far from Chara in terms of size, as he is listed at 6-foot-2 compared to Chara’s 6-foot-9, but he still has quite the height advantage on the 5-foot-9 Marchand.
The left-shot defenseman wasn’t much of a goal scorer for the OHL London Knights, but believes he can improve on his deficiencies in the coming years.
“I think that I still need to define my game. I think I have a lot of raw potential and I think that I need to become more defined all around,” Edward said. “I learned how to play defense really well this year, and became a good two-way defenseman. But I think polishing my game is a lot I need to work on. I think I’m someone who came into the hockey world later, than a lot of players, so I still have that ability to polish my game over the next few seasons in London and just development strength and speed.”
