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Bruins Prospects: Pipeline Labeled Worst in NHL

By Joe Palencia

MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JULY 07: President Cam Neely and General Manager Don Sweeny of the Boston Bruins look on during Round One of the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bell Centre on July 07, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JULY 07: President Cam Neely and General Manager Don Sweeny of the Boston Bruins look on during Round One of the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bell Centre on July 07, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Athletic released an article recently ranking the NHL’s pipelines and they named the Bruins’ prospect pipeline the worst in the league citing their lack of depth as the reason for its low ranking.

This brings up the question, will the front office regret signing Don Sweeney to his extension? Sweeney’s recent draft mishaps have caused the prospect stream to run dry via draft busts or trade. Many of those trades resulted in playoff eliminations. The Bruins front office has done a great job of wasting the primes of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand. Only managing to make it to the cup final three times and losing twice. It seems that the front office is not keen on putting their best effort into supporting their core players.

The Bruins managed to bring back their core for one last call. They’ve hired a new coach that promises to make the Bruins a team of pace and pressure and made a trade for another promising offensive player in Pavel Zacha. It seems like Don has no issue building a team in Boston for now, but he has no vision for the future and his draft history shows that.

2019 first-round pick John Beecher is not developing as hoped. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman evaluated Beecher as a below NHL-level puck handler and hockey sense but has an above-average compete level and skating skill. If he can develop a better offensive game, he might be able to escape the bottom 6 forward designation Pronan gave him.

Although the center spot is jammed up all the way through the pipeline but a position to look at in the future is defense. Their defensive depth is key to the future and could be key as soon as this coming season. Mason Lorhei is a defenseman drafted out of OSU and has the offensive tools to be a threat in the offensive zone but his skating needs improvement.

The prized prospect in Boston is Fabian Lysell, who could see some time in Boston this season if Jim Montgomery sees a fit for him, is at the top of the list and turned a lot of heads at the World Junior Championships. He is currently the talk of Bruins media and has shown why that is the case. Don Sweeny needs to hire some help when it comes to drafting. if I am the Jacobs family, I am watching his draft like that hard grading teacher you never asked for but somehow always got.

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