Boston Bruins Organization Once Again Dead Last In Prospect Rankings

There is work to be done for the Boston Bruins to turn things into a draft-and-development machine, but it can be turned around if the focus turns to there

Once again another round of NHL prospect rankings has been released by the usual draftnik prognosticators, and the Boston Bruins have found themselves at the bottom of the rankings. While the evaluation may be subjective from each particular outlet ranking the prospect cupboards for each NHL team, there is consensus that the Black and Gold don’t have anything close to a top group of young players.

They do have some standouts like former Ohio State defenseman Mason Lohrei, who showed well at Boston Bruins development camp and should factor into the NHL picture at some point this season. And others like Riley Duran and Fabian Lysell earned plaudits from Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery when he talked about the prospect camp to the Boston Herald earlier this week.

But the B’s don’t have the kind of draft-and-development machine that a competitor like the Tampa Bay Lightning has consistently built, as they keep churning out NHL talent from draft picks dotted all over the NHL Draft board. It’s well-documented that the Bruins have, to date, just ONE player that’s even logged one NHL game from their last six draft classes dating back to 2018, and that’s Jakub Lauko with just 23 NHL games played last season.

Jeremy Swayman looks like a keeper from the 2017 NHL Draft class, but their last truly productive draft was 2016 when they selected Charlie McAvoy, Trent Frederic, Ryan Lindgren in the first two rounds, and rounded out the draft with bubble NHL players like Joona Koppanen and Oskar Steen.

Worse than that they have ranked dead last in the NHL for two straight seasons as Athletic draft guru Corey Pronman wrote about last week: