Thursday, January 6, 2011

Decade of Draft by Team: Boston Bruins

The further we get in to this segment the more reafirmed the notion that drafting has evolved over the past decade.  I think we see much more importance placed in this area, and we see younger players coming up the ranks quicker due to the changing game and salary cap need for cheap talent.

The Bruins started out the decade burning three of five first round picks on Shaonne Morisonn, Matt Lashoff and Hannu Toivonen between 2001-2005.  They missed on their early picks but turned up some beauties in late rounds, like Andrew Alberts and Milan Jurcina in the 6th and 8th in 2001, Kris Versteeg and Matt Hunwick in the 5th and 8th in 2004, and in the first half of the decade they also stole current roster players Patrice Berferon and David Krejci in the second round.

2006 was one of the best draft day performances by a team ever, yileding Phil Kessel at 5th, Milan Lucic at 50th and Brad Marchand at 71. They continued to stockpile big, talented forwards to date stealing Jamie Arniel at 97th in 2008 and getting big reward for risk on a 6'5" kid out of Alberta Jr. A taking Joe Colborne 16th overall that same year.  Zac Hamill taken 8th in 2007 and Jordan Caron 25th in 2009 are at or near NHL ready, and 2010 GM Peter Chiarelli took a quartet of promising forwards including second overal pick Tyler Seguin, Ryan Spooner and Jared Knight in the 2nd round, and scooping Craig Cunningham way back in 4th.

The B's seem to be drafting by position, and stockpiling assets in one area while relying on free agency and trade for shore up others is a tactic that has worked for them.  That's how they were able to take two first round picks and a second from the Buds for Phil Kessel and still be a cup contender...not many teams have the organization depth to pull that off.  For that the B's get a strong, strong B.  Very strong. Infact, I'm liable to upgradae that now if I don't publish this post.

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