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One night after drafting talented Czech winger
David Pastrnak with the 25th overall pick, day two of the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia saw the Boston Bruins bring four more youngsters, including the son of a familiar face, into the organizational pipeline.
For Bruins fans, the pick of the day undoubtedly came in the second round, when the B’s picked up forward
Ryan Donato, son of former Bruin
Ted Donato, with the 56th overall pick. And while everybody knows the Donato name from Ted’s tenure with the club from 1991-99 and 2003-04, there’s plenty to be excited about when it comes to Ryan’s drafting.
“We were excited with [Ryan] Donato and I think, today, as you can see, with all the teams went with skill really. He’s a good offensive player and it’s one of those things where we are excited to have him,” Director of Amateur Scouting
Keith Gretzky said. “When we saw him in Toronto we walked right by- he was thinned out. He told us that conditioning is a factor for him but he wants to improve at that area and that will help his skating. When you have sense and skill like he has, it’s hard to find those types of players and that’s why we were surprised he was still available.”
Donato, who could play his 2014-15 hockey in the USHL or in the Western Hockey League, played his 2013-14 hockey at Dexter School (Massachusetts), where he tallied 37 goals and 78 points in 30 games, and has also skated with the Cape Cod Whalers U-18 squad for the past three seasons.
A hometown kid, Donato said that he tries to model his game after B’s center
Patrice Bergeron (who ironically started his Bruins career in Ryan’s father’s last year with the club), and has committed to play under his father’s squad at Harvard University in 2015-16.
Without a third-round pick thanks to the
Andrej Meszaros trade (fart noise goes here), the Bruins’ next pick came in round four, where they scooped up forward
Danton Heinen at 116.
A 6-feet tall lefty, Heinen played his 2013-14 hockey with Surrey of the BCHL, finishing his year with 29 goals and 62 points in 57 contests. A left wing and centerman, Heinen projects as a high-skill player that needs to add some muscle to his 165-pound frame as he gets older. “Offensive player, real high skilled player,” Gretzky said of Heinen. “He has to gain some strength, that’s his one concern right now. There’s a lot of kids that have to get stronger and he has to get stronger.”
In the fifth round, the Bruins selected forward
Anders Bjork, a 17-year-old that scored 17 goals and 35 points in 53 games this year in the USHL while being a ‘character guy’ for his club.
“[Bjork]’s well liked by his teammates, he seems to have a lot of character by what we hear and we’ve seen it on the ice and we’re excited to have him,” noted Gretzky.
Bjork is also the cousin of current Ottawa Senator
Erik Condra.
And with their final pick of the draft, the Bruins moved away from loading up up front, selecting Swedish defenseman
Emil Johansson with the 206th overall pick. A defender that every European scout in the organization raved about, the 5-foot-11 Johansson spent his 2013-14 year with HV-71, recording four goals and 14 points in 48 games between the club’s U-18 and Jr. squad.
“[Johansson]’s a good skating D-man, moves the puck really well,” said Gretzky. “He didn’t play in April, he had a broken hand so he is almost ready to be cleared and he’s working out now.”
In Gretzky’s first year as the Director of Amateur Scouting, there were a few noticeable trends in the B’s selections. For one, the Bruins sacrificed size for skill. None of their 2014 picks were over 6-feet, and not many of these players’ scouting reports come with the overused ‘gritty’ taglines. But some things remained the same. For the third straight year the Bruins took a Massachusetts native, a trend that started with Matt Grzelcyk (2012) and continued with
Ryan Fitzgerald (2013). And for the fifth straight year, the Bruins nabbed a defenseman in the fifth round or later.
Zach Trotman (two games in 2013-14) remains the only one of those to appear in the NHL.
Overall, this was probably the best route for the Bruins. They loaded up their forward depth -- something that’s certainly been an issue in recent years -- and opted for forwards that can play multiple positions. That’s something that you just know the Bruins love when it comes to configuring their rosters in both Boston and on the farm in Providence. And it’s just nice to see the Bruins begin to embrace the idea of skill over pure physicality. Now, you don’t anticipate the Bruins turning into the Vancouver Canucks of 2011 or this year’s Montreal Canadiens overnight obviously, but it’s nice to see that the organization is capable of finding the perfect blend of skill and size for the future.
Marty Brodeur and the Bruins?
Here’s a weird thought:
Marty Brodeur in a Bruins jersey. Fantasyland idea, actually. But according to a report out of Canada, the B’s and Brodeur could be a match.
Eeek.
Listen, I think that Brodeur will go down as one of the best goaltenders in the history of hockey. I don’t really think that that much is really debatable. He was the face of the New Jersey Devils for about two decades, and though he’s content with moving on from NJ, I really don’t think there’s a fit for the 42-year-old here in Boston. (Read as: This is a signing that would make no sense for the B’s.)
We know that Brodeur would like to go out on top -- whether that’s as a backup or a starter -- and a team like Boston gives him that chance. But the Bruins are in a severe cap-crunch right now, and it seems like they’ve already found their 2014-15 backup in
Niklas Svedberg, who just signed a one-year, one-way contract that comes with a team-friendly $600,000 cap-hit.
Now, to play devil’s advocate here (pun intended, I suppose), perhaps a Brodeur to Boston move makes sense if the Bruins want to package Svedberg in as part of a package to bring a cheaper forward or defenseman back to Boston in a cost-cutting manner. That being said, the Bruins
are in a situation here where they could be in the business of bringing a name in to justify their major price hikes this year. And if Iginla leaves town, Brodeur
is a name. A name that hasn’t had a star label for a few years, of course, but a name nevertheless. Still, this would require Brodeur taking a near league minimum contract with the Bruins, and I really don’t think that that’s a likely scenario.
I still think a team like Pittsburgh makes more sense for Brodeur, and that the Bruins would be just fine (or perhaps even better off) with Svedberg backing Rask up in 2014-15.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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