A confusing broadcast brings disappointing results to Boston.
In a broadcast that felt like Eric Andre had his fingerprints on it entirely by accident, the NHL did a live drawing of their NHL Draft lottery, and came away with the New York Islanders getting the 1st overall pick; and the Utah Hockey Club jumping all the way to 4th overall.
That leaves Boston with the 7th overall pick in the draft, a drop from their anticipated space in the draft that will have a perfectly reasonable reaction, I’m sure.
At 7th overall, the players available are projected to be guys like the following:
Viktor Eklund, a Left Wing from the storied Djurgårdens program:
The Large but oft-injured Roger McQueen, who played 17 games this year (a worrying trend at this draft):
The Moncton Menace of the net-front, Caleb Desnoyers:
The intriguingly named Carter Bear, who led the Everett Silvertips in points and goals this year in the WHL:
Definitely a bunch of interesting players to be sure, but that will mean at this point in the draft they are not sure things and will require a year or two of development in junior or the AHL in order to bring them up to speed, which was looking like the case for the entire first round on account of some of it’s best players spent almost the entire year on the Injured Reserve list. There’s even one listed expert who has the semi-consensus number 1 in Matthew Schaefer all the way down where the Bruins could take him. That would be funny!
It is however, very disappointing that the Bruins spent all that time getting absolutely hammered by the opposition down the stretch only to fall out of the Top 5 entirely. A top 5 pick could’ve theoretically been useful as either a prospect or as a potent trade chip for the team as they look to revamp their roster heading into the offseason.
Either way, this is a sounding board for your complaints about the broadcast, the nature of the draft, the kind of player Don Sweeney would pick, that sort of thing. Be cool, eat fruit, and we’ll see you for the Draft Profiles; starting with Roger McQueen.