Boston Bruins Do Not Win 2016 NHL Draft Lottery As The Toronto Maple Leafs Win The First Overall Draft Pick
The Boston Bruins are staying put in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft as the Toronto Maple Leafs won the NHL draft lottery. The Winnipeg Jets will be picking second, and the Columbus Blue Jackets will be picking third, meaning the Bruins will be picking in their original draft position at 14th overall. There are quality players that can be taken with the 14th overall draft pick, and although it was a pipe dream, it was clear that winning one of the top three draft positions would have been imperative to the future of the Bruins.
Entering the Draft Lottery, the Bruins only had a 1% chance at winning the first overall pick. They also had a 3.4% chance of winning a spot within the top-three.
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With the top three picks in the NHL draft set to be Austin Matthews, Patrik Laine, and Jesse Puljujarvi, the Bruins will have to look outside of the lottery positions to potentially find their future franchise-cornerstone. Some notable 14th overall draft picks in the past include: Alexander Wennberg, Zemgus Girgensons, Jaden Schwartz, Dmitry Kulikov, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brent Seabrook, among others. There is undoubtedly a plethora of good players that will be available once the Boston Bruins make their first selection this year, and whoever the team picks will only add to the incoming class of prospects that the Bruins already have the rights to.
Last season, the Boston Bruins made three consecutive draft picks, starting with Jakub Zboril at 13th overall, followed by Jake DeBrusk at 14th overall, and Zach Senyshyn with the 15th overall draft pick. The Bruins have also managed to find some very valuable prospects outside of the first round in recent years with players such as Brandon Carlo, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, Jeremy Lauzon, Ryan Donato, Danton Heinen, and Anders Bjork being found in the second round and beyond.
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The offseason started early for the Boston Bruins for the second straight year, and it will be up to Don Sweeney to continue finding valuable prospects that can develop as quickly as possible. It’s unlikely that each of the Bruins top prospects will pan out and become legitimate top-tier players at the NHL level, but the more chances they have at collecting valuable prospects, the more likely it is they will find a few that click.