Boston Bruins: Prospect pipeline ranked a miserable 29th

The Boston Bruins have found themselves ranked as the 29th best current prospect pipeline, with their lack of draft picks this summer likely playing a role.

Every summer, Corey Pronman over at The Athletic (subscription required) takes the time to have an in-depth look at the prospect pipeline for each NHL side and rank them accordingly. Placing the Boston Bruins at 29th is really no different to last season’s lowly 27th ranking.

His system only looks at those prospects under the age of 23 and doesn’t value those playing overseas as highly as those playing for the Providence Bruins, it’d seem. As such, the departure of Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson back to his homeland likely has impacted us.

Likewise, the departure of Ryan Donato from the organisation would’ve been a hit and Connor Clifton ageing out of the ranking would’ve also adjusted his view of the pipeline. However, in all reality you’d have to imagine even he didn’t expect the rise of Clifton to occur last year.

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He cites that the routine shipping of draft picks out of the organisation has led to the cupboards looking a little barer than the Boston Bruins would probably like. The addition of John Beecher this summer though was a smart move and he could well project to be a better player than expected; a possible top-six guy eventually.

The rather unexciting nature of the other players in the pipeline; Trent Frederic and Urho Vaakainanen were mentioned, along with Beecher make for a pool of players that whilst they may well one day make it to the NHL, they’re not about to blow anyone’s socks off.

For only the Calgary Flames and Washington Capitals to rank below us is obviously disappointing, but it’s also a fact that we’ve routinely made the play-offs and have sacrificed drafting early as a result of our success. Perhaps a few of the first round picks traded away could’ve eventuated into something more, but in a lot of cases, their return held value for a play-off run.

The biggest concern with the prospect pool being ranked so low is the fact that the core group is ageing; only Torey Krug is under 30 among those that were leading the team in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. David Pastrnak is still young enough to be a future core piece, as well as the obvious pair of Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo.

We would however have question marks around whether Danton Heinen and Jake Debrusk truly project as future core pieces for the Boston Bruins or whether they’re simply role-players.

Among all of the prospects, you’d have to say there’s a lack of guys that look set to go onto really huge things and a seeming dearth of talent in terms of goaltending when Tuukka Rask eventually gives up the net.

Whilst we doubt the likes of Boston Bruins General Manager, Don Sweeney pays much attention to articles such as this one, we’d hope that he is getting the message, loud and clear, that the team needs to invest a little more in its’ future.

Next. What we've learned from Don Sweeney's recent remarks. dark

We don’t want them to be missing the play-offs, but we do want some additional core pieces for the future acquired. Hopefully the Boston Bruins can manage this giant balancing act and sort out the pipeline.

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