The Boston Bruins are looking at this year’s Entry Draft with a critical eye. Over the last few seasons, the Bruins have either made errors in their drafting, or just couldn’t find a way to keep their hot young players. The last thing the Bruins need is to draft another Jordan Caron or give away another Tyler Seguin.
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The Bruins will be working hard to correct their mistakes in the drafting department. While Peter Chiarelli and his team may have been solid on the business end of the Bruins, the Chiarelli team’s greatest weakness seemed to be in the drafting department. We won’t know for a couple of years how solid Don Sweeney’s triple first round picks will do, but at the moment things are looking promising for both Jakub Zboril and Jake DeBrusk.
This season, the B’s will have two first round picks. It’s nearly a certainty that they’ll pick a blueliner at the 14th pick. At the moment, it seems to be a three-way race between Charlie McAvoy, Dante Fabbro, and Jake Bean. All three of them are expected to go in the middle of the first round, and the Bruins should be able to grab at least one of them. While none of them will be Dougie Hamilton ready going into the 2016-17 season, any one of them could find themselves in Providence and getting a few games in Boston if they can adapt quickly enough.
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The Boston Bruins are critically aware of their mistakes over the last two seasons. The Bruins don’t want to attempt a full rebuild this season (I know some of you disagree with that call), and are going to work harder with what they had. It’s why they decided to shake up the coaching staff.
The Black and Gold know there will be a lot of kids in the lineup this season, especially in the bottom six forward area. It’s part of the reason they made the changes they did. They moved Jay Pandolfo, their head of player development into an assistant coaches position so he could be a more effective day-to-day trainer with the Bruins young talent. It’s also why they promoted Providence Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy to the other open assistants position. They wanted a man who has seen the young talent on a daily basis.
A lot of fans have been critical of the Bruins this offseason. At times, I’ve been among them. But after taking a step back and looking at what Don Sweeney and company are trying to accomplish, we might see good things come down the line. While I don’t think the Bruins will be a serious contender next season, they could be a tough team to play against in the 2017-18 season.