With their first pick on Day 2 of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the Boston Bruins selected Calgary-born left winger Quinn Olson, who is now bound for the University of Minnesota-Duluth; the same NCAA hotbed that Karson Kuhlman played his college hockey.
There was plenty of action on Day Two of the NHL Entry Draft; though none of it really affected the Boston Bruins. Prior to drafting Quinn Olson in the third round, we saw the New Jersey Devils steal P.K. Subban, meaning we’ll see him a little more each year. Meanwhile, within the Atlantic Division, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave up a first round pick to rid themselves of Patrick Marleau‘s contract.
All of that would’ve just been noise to Quinn Olson, who now finds himself an NHL-drafted player. The Boston Bruins look to have grabbed a smaller winger, coming in at 5’11”, but one that plays with heart, tenacity and a certain feistiness that suggests he’ll be a good fit in the Bruins’ organisation.
Given the Boston Bruins picked almost as late as you can in the first round and then didn’t have another pick until the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, they had to nail every single selection. This one, on the surface, doesn’t feel like it’s a mind-blowing steal or a game-changing pick.
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I’d have personally preferred they pick up Jordan Spence with this pick, given he was scooped up at 95th overall, just three picks later by the Los Angeles Kings. Quinn Olson played out the past season in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, a tier below major junior hockey in Canada. By comparison, Spence played in the QMJHL and scored at a rate of 0.72 points per game as a defenseman.
With all respect to Quinn Olson though, in the season prior to being picked in the NHL Entry Draft; he posted 66 points in 54 games, with a further 15 points in 13 games for the Okotoks Oilers – not, by any means, bad totals at all.
The fact that he’s headed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth should see him given a real chance to play up age-wise and properly impress. If he can do anything close to what Karson Kuhlman has managed with his talent, the pick is a win. To snag a bottom-six guy in the third round is still a win.
Perhaps the hard part to swallow about this pick is that Future Considerations had him ranked as going 192nd overall. Even the NHL Central Scouting Bureau saw him as 105th among North American skaters.
To use one of their two picks in the top one-hundred on a player that hadn’t been evaluated that highly suggests they’re taking a big gamble or they’ve seen something in the player that nobody else saw and Quinn Olson will prove to be one of those guys we eventually talk about as a third-round steal.
Either way, there were probably better prospects that they left on the board with this pick so it’s going to have to be a case of only time will tell.