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Draft weekend did not come with the fireworks some expected in regards to the Boston Bruins.
After Friday morning began with one NHL executive telling HockeyBuzz.com that he felt ‘extremely confident’ that the Bruins would make a trade for a defenseman (think Anaheim’s Cam Fowler or St. Louis d-man
Kevin Shattenkirk) by the end of the night, the Bruins instead made just one trade (a seventh-round pick sent to Florida for a seventh-round pick next year), and six selections.
With their big pick, the 14th overall, B’s general manager
Don Sweeney nabbed defenseman
Charlie McAvoy. Already
in Boston’s backyard after a successful freshman year at Boston University in which McAvoy skated as the youngest player in the NCAA (he didn’t turn 18 ‘til Dec. 21), McAvoy posted three goals and 25 points in 37 games played. The Long Beach, N.Y. native, McAvoy played this past season with Bruins prospect Matt Grzelcyk as his frequent pairing partner, and models his game after
Drew Doughty (while also drawing some comparison to P.K. Subban).
To draft McAvoy, the Bruins (and many others), passed on defenseman
Jakob Chychrun, a player that was once considered the top defensive prospect of this entire draft class. What made the Bruins and other teams ‘sour’ on Chychrun over the course of the season seemed to be questions over his hockey sense and other slight wrinkles that scouts and executives have seen in his game, but for the Bruins, the ability to deal with McAvoy on a hands-on basis with his being in the city already.
Night one for the Bruins concluded with an off-the-board pick that brought center
Trent Frederic to Boston with the 29th overall pick. Ranked in the 50s by most scouts and analysts, Frederic spent last year with the U.S. Under-18 team, and put up four goals and 14 points in 23 games.
Sweeney spoke of the versatility he believes Frederic will bring to the Bruins, and noted that in a system full of skilled wingers, the Bruins will need a strong penalty-killing presence down the middle.
Frederic, a St. Louis native, will play for Wisconsin next season.
On day two, the Bruins nabbed two defensemen and two forwards. With their first pick of Saturday, the Bruins drafted defenseman
Ryan Lindgren, brother of Montreal Canadiens goaltender, Charlie, at No. 49 overall. Lindgren is not a point-producing defenseman, but comes with a strong first pass out of his zone. Without a third or fourth round pick, Boston’s next selection was 6-foot-4 winger
Joona Koppanen at 135th overall. Koppanen scored nine goals and 26 points in 40 games for U-20 Ilves.
Their second pick of the fifth round came with the selection of d-man
Cameron Clarke. A Michigan native, the 20-year-old Clarke put up nine goals and 50 points in 59 games for the Lone Star Brahmas of the NAHL. Clarke, who made the switch to defense just three years ago, was named the NAHL’s Defenseman of the Year this past season, and will play for Ferris State University next season.
Boston’s draft day ended with jack-of-all trades forward, the 5-foot-9
Oskar Steen, with the 165th overall selected, a pick that moved from Boston to Colorado to Boston again.
But let’s go back to Friday night, for just a moment.
The buzz around the league was that the Bruins were absolutely going to make a move for a defenseman. Sweeney and the Bruins had the picks, prospects, and even NHL resources to make a deal happen. They had their sights on Shattenkirk. And it seemed like a match until the Blues tried putting the Bruins over a barrel. Not only did the Blues want both of Boston’s first-round picks, but they also wanted
David Pastrnak. That was an obvious, complete non-starter for the Black and Gold.
Although the Bruins desperately need another top-four defenseman to plug into their mix, they almost just as badly need to find some more scoring help on that right side. Moving Pastrnak would only further complicate those issues, and would give more ammunition to the idea that the Bruins cannot properly develop their young, high-end talents. And not to mention there’s no guarantee that Shattenkirk stays.
So now the focus, for Sweeney and the Bruins, moves towards finding that guy via free agency.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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