The Player(s) that Got Away 2015 Draft - or ALL prior draft discussion here

[BostonBob]

That's okay.

In 2003 the Habs passed on Bergeron and Boston stole him right out of their back yard.

Heck - Montreal actually had 2 chances to grab Bergeron. At # 10 they took Andrei Kostitsyn and then picked Cory Urquhart at # 40.


EDIT - Looking at that 2003 Draft it's funny just how many teams ( including LA with 4 picks ) had multiple chances to pick Bergeron before Boston grabbed him at # 45.


Pittsburgh
Marc-Andre Fleury # 1
Ryan Stone # 32

Carolina
Eric Staal # 2
Danny Richmond # 31

Florida
Nathan Horton # 3
Anthony Stewart # 25
Kamil Kreps # 38

San Jose
Milan Michalek # 6
Steve Bernier # 16
Josh Hennessy # 43

Nashville
Ryan Suter # 7
Konstantin Glazachev # 35
Kevin Klein # 37

Calgary
Dion Phaneuf # 9
Tim Ramholt # 39

Philadelphia
Jeff Carter # 11
Mike Richards # 24

Los Angeles
Dustin Brown # 13
Brian Boyle # 26
Jeff Tambellini # 27
Konstantin Pushkarev # 44

New Jersey
Zach Parise # 17
Peter Vrana # 42

Anaheim
Ryan Getzlaf # 19
Corey Perry # 28

Dallas
Loui Eriksson # 33
Vojtek Polak # 36

Tampa Bay
Mike Egener # 34
Matt Smaby # 41

 

[Bruinaura]

Heck - Montreal actually had 2 chances to grab Bergeron. At # 10 they took Andrei Kostitsyn and then picked Cory Urquhart at # 40.


EDIT - Looking at that 2003 Draft it's funny just how many teams ( including LA with 4 picks ) had multiple chances to pick Bergeron before Boston grabbed him at # 45.

Pittsburgh
Marc-Andre Fleury # 1
Ryan Stone # 32

Carolina
Eric Staal # 2
Danny Richmond # 31

Florida
Nathan Horton # 3
Anthony Stewart # 25
Kamil Kreps # 38

San Jose
Milan Michalek # 6
Steve Bernier # 16
Josh Hennessy # 43

Nashville
Ryan Suter # 7
Konstantin Glazachev # 35
Kevin Klein # 37

Calgary
Dion Phaneuf # 9
Tim Ramholt # 39

Philadelphia
Jeff Carter # 11
Mike Richards # 24

Los Angeles
Dustin Brown # 13
Brian Boyle # 26
Jeff Tambellini # 27
Konstantin Pushkarev # 44

New Jersey
Zach Parise # 17
Peter Vrana # 42

Anaheim
Ryan Getzlaf # 19
Corey Perry # 28

Dallas
Loui Eriksson # 33
Vojtech Polak # 36

Tampa Bay
Mike Egener# 34
Matt Smaby # 41

Quite a few NHLers, but also quite a few "who??"s

Call me a homer, but I take Bergeron over all those guys

 

[RussellmaniaKW]

Everyone always talks about what a disaster the 2015 draft was for the Bruins so I was curious how it looks from a big picture perspective. I manually counted up the games played for each player drafted by each team in 2015 and threw them in a spreadsheet (wasn't as hard as it sounds, just went here: 2015 NHL Entry Draft | Hockey-Reference.com )

Bruins draft picks in 2015 have the 4th most total games played (294 and counting). Bruins are also one of 3 teams with 5 different players from the 2015 draft having played at least 1 NHL game.

Obviously this doesn't tell the whole story in terms of the quality of those games played. McDavid & Eichel are better than any single Bruins 2015 draft pick...but games played is certainly one important measure of draft year value because having 0 games played from an entire draft class 3 years later (Chicago & NYR) certainly is a disastrous draft.

If and when Senyshyn, Vladar, or Hughes play in the NHL the Bruins could have 8 different players from the 2015 draft having played an NHL game. Futhermore, Zboril, JFK, and Lauzon are all right on the bubble and could easily be regulars within a year if they don't get traded or beat out by the organization depth acquired in other draft years.

So yeah keep crying about Barzal & Connor if you want, but don't call 2015 a disaster. Where the Bruins fit into this list is anything but a disaster and there's at least a dozen teams on that list that would kill to have the kind of results the Bruins got out of that draft.

 

[Bruinfanatic]

It seems the bruins scouts were the only ones that saw something in him since he was not pegged as a first rder. I have to say I felt DS had pulled a nice one there. In fact it came across to me anyway that Zach had the most potential to be a dynamic player . Who knows maybe it can still happen but my excitement has vanished

Yeah never know maybe a late bloomer

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

Everyone always talks about what a disaster the 2015 draft was for the Bruins so I was curious how it looks from a big picture perspective. I manually counted up the games played for each player drafted by each team in 2015 and threw them in a spreadsheet (wasn't as hard as it sounds, just went here: 2015 NHL Entry Draft | Hockey-Reference.com )

Bruins draft picks in 2015 have the 4th most total games played (294 and counting). Bruins are also one of 3 teams with 5 different players from the 2015 draft having played at least 1 NHL game.

Obviously this doesn't tell the whole story in terms of the quality of those games played. McDavid & Eichel are better than any single Bruins 2015 draft pick...but games played is certainly one important measure of draft year value because having 0 games played from an entire draft class 3 years later (Chicago & NYR) certainly is a disastrous draft.

If and when Senyshyn, Vladar, or Hughes play in the NHL the Bruins could have 8 different players from the 2015 draft having played an NHL game. Futhermore, Zboril, JFK, and Lauzon are all right on the bubble and could easily be regulars within a year if they don't get traded or beat out by the organization depth acquired in other draft years.

So yeah keep crying about Barzal & Connor if you want, but don't call 2015 a disaster. Where the Bruins fit into this list is anything but a disaster and there's at least a dozen teams on that list that would kill to have the kind of results the Bruins got out of that draft.

I disagree with you, Russ.

What did the Bruins have... Six picks in the top 50? Two out of six ain't bad, except that it kinda is.

Now it's still early and I have high hopes for Senyshyn still and Zboril and Lauzon. (JFK is a swing and a miss in my opinion... Just not a fan of his game at all.)

But if it's too early to count some of these guys out, it's also too early to laud the selections.

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

honestly I don't think people understand scouting and drafting when they do an article like this. of course you can tell something about an 18 year old... mostly his raw tools. sometimes you can get a sense how hard he will compete... but honestly theres a lot more to a 18 year old kid becoming an nhl player than anyone can ever accurately predict to any large degree of success on a continuous basis

we all hear about how some super scout found some miracle prospect and drafted in the 4th/5th round when no one else had ever heard of the kid. it might happen 1 or 2 times a year... maybe 20-30 times in a decade

if this was happening regular and any scout would be expected to be able to do this... it would happen a lot more often. instead we see great players go totally undrafted just as often. 20-30 ufa undrafed kids every decade end up making it to the nhl

we routinally see kids drafted in the first round that flame out... and a lot of other kids get drafted in rounds 2 and 3 that should have been first rounders

I don't think any of this constitutes blowing a draft

blowing a draft is when someone does something so shocking that no one else can possibly understand it

when boston drafted evgeny ryabchikov in 1994 they were trying to reach for a goalie

Evgeni Nabokov was available if we needed a Russian
jose theodore was available
marty turco was available

there were very good qualified goalies rated higher than ryabchikov we could have gone after. the pick was so far off the charts no one had a freaking clue why boston went this way. even if they wanted this kid, they didn't need to spend a first round pick on him

I remember when norman leveille was a kid... the buzz around him was as strong as the McAvoy buzz. we were expecting this kid to become a first line stud.

as for luc dufor… he had tools. he was being talked up in articles when id read the hockey news or listen to the games.

sure... we ended up with nothing for these picks but theres been many many many drafts we ended up with nothing. that's just how things go sometimes

if you make a pick that grabs a guy roughly rated where others rate him and he doesn't work out... that's how the cards get played. but going whacko off the charts to draft someone that doesn't work out is where a draft can be said to be blown

getting a kid from draft day into a staring role in the nhl isn't exactly an easy process

 

[Marcobruin]

Bellows was a ****ing ***-****er

I agree .I watched Bellows and he was ok but i dont regret not picking him...Stevens thats another story however i think Kluzak would have been the best dman of those . He would have had his share of goals but mostly many assists and imo a force on D.
He was pretty good when he played and was on one leg .The bruins took a chance in drafting him with the knee injury however it was Dave Lewis who really finished Kluzak..

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Heck - Montreal actually had 2 chances to grab Bergeron. At # 10 they took Andrei Kostitsyn and then picked Cory Urquhart at # 40.


EDIT - Looking at that 2003 Draft it's funny just how many teams ( including LA with 4 picks ) had multiple chances to pick Bergeron before Boston grabbed him at # 45.


Pittsburgh
Marc-Andre Fleury # 1
Ryan Stone # 32

Carolina
Eric Staal # 2
Danny Richmond # 31

Florida
Nathan Horton # 3
Anthony Stewart # 25
Kamil Kreps # 38

San Jose
Milan Michalek # 6
Steve Bernier # 16
Josh Hennessy # 43

Nashville
Ryan Suter # 7
Konstantin Glazachev # 35
Kevin Klein # 37

Calgary
Dion Phaneuf # 9
Tim Ramholt # 39

Philadelphia
Jeff Carter # 11
Mike Richards # 24

Los Angeles
Dustin Brown # 13
Brian Boyle # 26
Jeff Tambellini # 27
Konstantin Pushkarev # 44

New Jersey
Zach Parise # 17
Peter Vrana # 42

Anaheim
Ryan Getzlaf # 19
Corey Perry # 28

Dallas
Loui Eriksson # 33
Vojtek Polak # 36

Tampa Bay
Mike Egener # 34
Matt Smaby # 41

You can put the names of everyone drafted in Martin St. Louis' draft year. Everyone passed, every time.

 

[Marcobruin]

Since Marchand the Bruins have not been able to get an elite player except in the first rd. Thats 12 years ago. Having said that covering that period to now overall with picks other then first rd... The bruins imo have been awful

 

[ODAAT]

I pegged Denis Ruel as a long term project, still waiting

 

[Dr Hook]

1987- what a disaster. We took Stephane Quintal instead of Joe Sakic, John LeClair, or . . . Theo Fleury!

 

[Kalus]

Elliot friedman said on his podcast that the Bruins were turned off by Barzal's answer when they asked why they should pick him. He said something along the lines of "don't, and we'll see how it works out for you".

 

[ON3M4N]

Elliot friedman said on his podcast that the Bruins were turned off by Barzal's answer when they asked why they should pick him. He said something along the lines of "don't, and we'll see how it works out for you".

I'd probably be turned off by that kind of attitude too

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

Its obvious to anyone that pays attention... bruins put a huge premium on attitude... and team first... the crest is bigger than the player

Hard to always know how 18 year old attitudes will stand the test of celebity and wealth... but if the attitude is already crappy at 18 theres no chance bruins are hot to draft you

 

[22Brad Park]

honestly I don't think people understand scouting and drafting when they do an article like this. of course you can tell something about an 18 year old... mostly his raw tools. sometimes you can get a sense how hard he will compete... but honestly theres a lot more to a 18 year old kid becoming an nhl player than anyone can ever accurately predict to any large degree of success on a continuous basis

we all hear about how some super scout found some miracle prospect and drafted in the 4th/5th round when no one else had ever heard of the kid. it might happen 1 or 2 times a year... maybe 20-30 times in a decade

if this was happening regular and any scout would be expected to be able to do this... it would happen a lot more often. instead we see great players go totally undrafted just as often. 20-30 ufa undrafed kids every decade end up making it to the nhl

we routinally see kids drafted in the first round that flame out... and a lot of other kids get drafted in rounds 2 and 3 that should have been first rounders

I don't think any of this constitutes blowing a draft

blowing a draft is when someone does something so shocking that no one else can possibly understand it

when boston drafted evgeny ryabchikov in 1994 they were trying to reach for a goalie

Evgeni Nabokov was available if we needed a Russian
jose theodore was available
marty turco was available

there were very good qualified goalies rated higher than ryabchikov we could have gone after. the pick was so far off the charts no one had a freaking clue why boston went this way. even if they wanted this kid, they didn't need to spend a first round pick on him

I remember when norman leveille was a kid... the buzz around him was as strong as the McAvoy buzz. we were expecting this kid to become a first line stud.

as for luc dufor… he had tools. he was being talked up in articles when id read the hockey news or listen to the games.

sure... we ended up with nothing for these picks but theres been many many many drafts we ended up with nothing. that's just how things go sometimes

if you make a pick that grabs a guy roughly rated where others rate him and he doesn't work out... that's how the cards get played. but going whacko off the charts to draft someone that doesn't work out is where a draft can be said to be blown

getting a kid from draft day into a staring role in the nhl isn't exactly an easy process

Leville was an excellent player who had his career snuffed out bigtime.That was a nice pick by Bruins if kid never had that terrible thing happen to him.

 

[compan]

Elliot friedman said on his podcast that the Bruins were turned off by Barzal's answer when they asked why they should pick him. He said something along the lines of "don't, and we'll see how it works out for you".

Haha and Barzal was right. I’d absolutely hate it if I heard it though. But these are TEENAGE BOYS that are the stars at every level they play at. They’ll mature into men as they age. Draft the talent and utilize your veterans as role models.

 

[Clode]

Sean McIndoe looks at draft blunders of every team and while he starts his column with the 2015 Bruins draft he doesn't think it was the biggest bunder in team history

Down Goes Brown: Finding (and fixing) every team's most...

He argues


View attachment 159647

Leville could have been a superstar but fate intervened. Chelios (oof) was a whiff and most likely was Sinden's anti-American bias. Not picking Chelios most likely cost the team a Cup or two.

But 2015 will haunt Sweeney




View attachment 159651

I honestly think the Bruins were so blindsided when the trade with Arizona fell apart at the last minute they didn't have a Plan B. I would love to see the Behind the B footage that never aired about what really happened that night.

Noah Hanifin was the player they wanted and I don't think they would have traded Hamilton unless they were 100% sure they had a deal with the Coyotes. But of course they didn't

Just imagine a Debrusk-Barzal-Boeser line....

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

It's easy to point after the fact when you know what guys actually became impact players. But to call the draft an inexact science is selling it way too low.

In terms of this topic though, one of the worst was Kluzak over Brian Bellows. Even if you wanted to take a dman there, you had Scott Stevens and Phil Housley to pick from as well. Obviously injuries curtailed Gord's career, but man, Bellows would have been sweet.

Someone can correct me, as I believe most of this is coming from what I've read, and I may be misremembering things, but didn't the North Stars and the Bruins have some sort of deal worked out that they wouldn't select Bellows?

Actually looked it up, there was a deal, equally as bad.

Harry Sinden, the Boston Bruins general manager, was sold on the young defenceman, and made him the 1st overall pick in that year's NHL Entry Draft. Sinden passed up on Kitchener Rangers star Brian Bellows, who was the popular choice amongst Bruin fans, and Gary Nylund of the Portland Winter Hawks, who many, including The Hockey News, felt was the better defenceman. Sinden made a deal with the Minnesota North Stars, who had the second pick that year, where he agreed to let them have Bellows with the No. 2 pick in exchange for Brad Palmer and Dave Donnelly.

Reference

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

Haha and Barzal was right. I’d absolutely hate it if I heard it though. But these are TEENAGE BOYS that are the stars at every level they play at. They’ll mature into men as they age. Draft the talent and utilize your veterans as role models.

Haha, if Barzal said that, really curious what Brad Marchand said during draft interviews.

Anyone have those? I know he wasn't a first rounder or anything, but he must have had some good quips.

 

[JOKER 192]

I disagree with you, Russ.

What did the Bruins have... Six picks in the top 50? Two out of six ain't bad, except that it kinda is.

Now it's still early and I have high hopes for Senyshyn still and Zboril and Lauzon. (JFK is a swing and a miss in my opinion... Just not a fan of his game at all.)

But if it's too early to count some of these guys out, it's also too early to laud the selections.

No shit. Especially when you had three picks in the 1st round. It's a total disaster really. Mark my words and anyone can take me to task. Zboril is at best a 6 and JFK is a jag at best.I was the one that told you all that Jared Knight was not an NHL player. Hell he isn't even an AHL Player.

All of that based on watching him play parts of three streamed AHL games. Not sure why it isn't as obvious to some "experts" around here. My credentials don't go farther than having played the game.

 

[compan]

I fear Senyshyn is the new Jared Knight. Only in this case it’s because we desperately don’t want that draft to be any worse than it already is.

 

[LSCII]

Haha, if Barzal said that, really curious what Brad Marchand said during draft interviews.

Anyone have those? I know he wasn't a first rounder or anything, but he must have had some good quips.

I hate hearing crap like this after the fact actually impacted their drafting. Didn't these clowns also have an issue with Kessel because of crap Jack Johnson said about him? I mean, freaking Jack Johnson? That guy is a turd on ice, yet his opinion was considered? Yikes.

Maybe it's me, but I don't go on hearsay. I'd go by how the kid conducts himself when I personally interact with him. If Barzal was cocky enough to say that, I'd be all for it. It shows to me that he's extremely confident.

 

[JoeIsAStud]

Elliot friedman said on his podcast that the Bruins were turned off by Barzal's answer when they asked why they should pick him. He said something along the lines of "don't, and we'll see how it works out for you".

Barzal certainly did something (or things) during the draft process that pushed a whole lot of teams away from him. Talented kid, but I', not sure the bruins draft him if they had 3 more picks there

 

[compan]

I hate hearing crap like this after the fact actually impacted their drafting. Didn't these clowns also have an issue with Kessel because of crap Jack Johnson said about him? I mean, freaking Jack Johnson? That guy is a turd on ice, yet his opinion was considered? Yikes.

Maybe it's me, but I don't go on hearsay. I'd go by how the kid conducts himself when I personally interact with him. If Barzal was cocky enough to say that, I'd be all for it. It shows to me that he's extremely confident.

Absolutely. Like I mentioned above, these are teenage boys and they have a roster full of vets that are good role models. I want to draft a kid with confidence, not one that will second guess themselves their whole development. To think that could have been the reason we don't have a talent like Barzal right now, but instead somebody that may never have an NHL career is frustrating as all hell.

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

Absolutely. Like I mentioned above, these are teenage boys and they have a roster full of vets that are good role models. I want to draft a kid with confidence, not one that will second guess themselves their whole development. To think that could have been the reason we don't have a talent like Barzal right now, but instead somebody that may never have an NHL career is frustrating as all hell.

This is my gripe with this whole character thing and the Bruins so-called great leadership. Not saying our leaders aren't leaders, because I think they are. But you'd think management could take a risk with some players, hoping that our leaders could help turn them around, instead of taking lesser players because they think they have better character.

You can't teach skill. We had the vets. Kids grow up.