The official reveal of the Seattle Kraken‘s first ever roster is just a few hours away, however, their selections for the expansion draft were required to be submitted at 10 A.M. this morning. With such a big gap between then and the draft broadcast, most of the picks have been leaked — including the selection from the Boston Bruins.
As we know, the B’s were able to protect most of the players that saw in their future and wanted to keep for the upcoming season. I say most as left wing Nick Ritchie and young defensemen Jeremy Lauzon, Connor Clifton, and Jakub Zboril were left unprotected for Seattle to take.
Out of the four, the focus was on Lauzon and Clifton as they were seen as the two best of the four players but are rather close in actual ability and value. If you read my analysis and breakdown of Boston’s protected list, you know that I think Clifton has more potential due to his offensive upside, but Lauzon has more value because he can play on any pairing due to his stay-at-home style of defense and should be considered the more likely and safer pick.
Well, I was right. It’s being reported by several different reporters that the Kraken have selected 24-year-old defenseman Jeremy Lauzon as their player selection from the Boston Bruins.
What does losing Jeremy Lauzon mean for the Bruins?
For the B’s, losing Lauzon is bigger than it should be. Lauzon, although starting off on the first pairing with Charlie McAvoy this season, is more of a third-pair defenseman still. Of course, he can develop into a first-pair D-man, but he still makes a ton of mistakes in his own zone.
However, with the Black and Gold being so thin at left-shot defensemen, Lauzon holds a ton more value to Boston than he actually should. If Lauzon is actually going to Seattle, the B’s now only have three left-shot defensemen under contract for the 2021-22 season: Matt Grzelcyk, Jakub Zboril, and John Moore (not counting prospects Jack Ahcan and Urho Vaakanainen).
Additionally, the value of Lauzon to the B’s increased even more after Kevan Miller decided to retire. With Miller gone, Lauzon was now the only defenseman that you could trust to make a big hit and fight the opposition to defend his teammates.
With losing Lauzon, there’s much more pressure to re-sign trade acquisition Mike Reilly as well as add a big, strong, and physical defenseman that played the style of Lauzon and Miller.
One thing is clear if the B’s are in fact losing Lauzon to the Kraken, Don Sweeney has a lot to work to do to make sure Boston’s defense, especially the left side, is ready for the 2021-22 season.