The two-day 2023 Entry Draft is set to kick off in Nashville on Wednesday night (June 28). Because of a very busy trade deadline, the Boston Bruins are not scheduled to pick until the third round on Thursday (June 29). General manager (GM) Don Sweeney used his first-round pick in a trade to acquire Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals on Feb. 23. The Black and Gold’s second-round pick belongs to the Anaheim Ducks as it was used at the trade deadline in March of 2022 to acquire Hampus Lindholm.
Related: 2023 NHL Draft Guide
With no picks until the third round, it’s going to be a long wait for Sweeney and his staff before they’re on the clock. As we wait to see what Boston’s front office does, let’s rank Sweeney’s eight previous drafts.
9. 2023 Entry Draft
This Draft Class is just six months old and the jury is still out. Christopher Pelosi was picked first in the third round and 92nd overall. A 6-foot-2 center, he has 11 goals and 10 assists for the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL. His teammate, Beckett Hendrickson, was picked in the fourth round by Boston and 124th overall. He has seven goals and 12 assists for Sioux Falls this season.
In the sixth round and 188th overall, Ryan Walsh a 6-foot-1 center was picked and in 11 games for Cornell this season he has five goals and seven points. Casper Nassen was the first of two seventh-round picks and 214th overall and the 6-foot-4 wing has four goals and 19 assists for Frolunda HC J20 in Sweden in 23 games. The final pick was Kristian Kostadinski, a defenseman who has three goals and 13 points for Forlunda HC J20 in Sweden. The jury is out on this class and it will be some time before we see how it ends up playing out.
8. 2019 Entry Draft
This class has a lot of question marks about whether or not there will be any NHL players from these selections. The first-round pick, 30th overall, John Beecher has the most upside and has solidified himself in Boston this season in a bottom-six role. He played well in his first pro season this past season with the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL) and is someone who will be looked at as filling a center spot, as well as being a penalty killer. After that, the pickings seem slim.
Quinn Olson, picked in the third round and 92nd overall, just finished his senior season at Minnesota-Duluth and had seven goals and 7 assists in 37 games for the Bulldogs. Defenseman Roman Bychikov was selected in the fifth round, Matias Mantykivi was selected in the sixth round and Jake Schmaltz was picked in the seventh round. Mantykivi was not offered a contract by the Bruins prior to a June 1 deadline and therefore has parted ways with his rights. This draft class is turning into a miss aside from Beecher.
7. 2018 Entry Draft
If you think 2019 was a miss, 2018 is turning into just as bad of a group. Of the five players selected, Jakub Lauko is the only one who has played in Boston and most likely will be the only one. Lauko, who signed a two-year contract over last summer was selected 77th overall and in the third round. He played in 23 games in 2022-23 with four goals and three assists while having 10 goals and seven assists in 35 games for Providence. This season, he has three assists in 21 games for the Black and Gold.
Defenseman Axel Andersson was the first player selected, 57th overall in the second round, but was traded to Anaheim as part of a deal in 2020 that got the Bruins Ondrej Kase. Fourth-round pick Curtis Hall is in Providence, sixth-round pick Dustyn McFaul just finished his senior season at Clarkson University, and Pavel Shen, picked in the seventh round is playing in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Lauko appears to be the only NHLer from this group.
6. 2017 Entry Draft
In 2017, Sweeney had six picks. First-round pick Urho Vaakanaienen was part of the Lindholm trade with the Ducks and second-round pick Jack Studnicka was stuck in Providence as the depth in Boston ahead of him was deep, so Sweeney sent him in Oct. 2022 to the Vancouver Canucks. He is currently is with the San Jose Sharks. The best pick of this group came in the fourth round.
Related: Boston Bruins Top 10 Prospects for 2023 Offseason
Sweeney selected goalie Jeremy Swayman and the former University of Maine standout has burst onto the scene the last two seasons. Swayman went 63-24-9 in two seasons in Boston splitting time with Linus Ullmark. He sighed a one-year deal over the summer after an arbitration hearing and is 9-1-4 with a 2.06 goals-against average (GAA) and a .933 save percentage (SV%) in 2023-24. Swayman has a career 2.21 GAA and a .922 SV%. The Alaska native is expected to be the future between the pipes in Boston.
Cedric Pare (sixth round) and Daniel Bukac (seventh round) are players that never received a contract and Victor Berglund has spent his time with the organization with the P-Bruins.
5. 2015 Entry Draft
Ok, you knew it was coming at some point, the 2015 Entry Draft. Sweeney’s first as Bruins’ GM and he set himself up for three consecutive picks at 13, 14, and 15. His first pick at 13, Jakub Zboril, has been a slow riser in the system and this past season, he spent the year as the seventh defenseman with the team, playing in 22 games with a goal and three assists. He currently is in Providence and was recently placed on waivers and went unclaimed. The next pick, Jake DeBrusk is the one from this class that has worked out the best. In 414 career games, he has 123 goals and 114 assists, spending the last year and a half on the top line in Boston. In 29 games this season, he has four goals and seven assists.
The 15th pick and three straight first-round, Zach Senyshyn, spent the majority of his time with Providence, requested a trade, and was dealt to the Ottawa Senators in March 2022. Brandon Carlo was a second-round pick, 37th overall, and has found a home in the top four on the defense of the Black and Gold, while Jeremy Lauzon was also selected in the second round, 52nd overall, but was the first selection of the Seattle Kraken in their Expansion Draft in July of 2021 and was a big loss for Boston after finally establishing himself on defense the previous season. Goalie Dan Vladar was picked in the third round, 75th overall, and played in five games in 2020-21 before being traded to the Calgary Flames.
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The rest of that class, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson (second round), Jesse Gabrielle (fourth round), Cameron Hughes (sixth round), and Jack Becker (seventh round) turned out to be misses.
4. 2022 Draft Class
2022’s draft class in Montreal is another one where Sweeney did not have a first-round draft pick, but his picks that began in the second round are showing some promise. Center Matthew Poitras was picked 54th overall and had a strong season in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Guelph Storm. In 63 games, the Ontario native had 16 goals and 79 assists turning into one of the league’s top playmakers. He had two goals and six points in the playoffs. In his first pro season in 2023-24, he has five goals and 13 points in 27 games playing up and down the lineup for Jim Montgomery.
Two fourth-round picks, Cole Spicer (117th) and Dans Locmelis (119th) had two different types of seasons. Spicer had three goals and six points at Minnesota-Duluth as a freshman, while Locemlis made a leap in terms of development with 25 goals and 34 assists for Lulea HF in Sweden. He is currently at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has four goals and five points in 12 games. Defenseman Frederic Brunet, who was picked in the fifth round, and the 6-foot-3, 189-pound physical left-shot had 16 goals and 57 assists for Rimouski Oceanic and Victoriaville Tigres in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) before recording a pair of assists with Providence in one game last season. This season, he has made the jump to pro hockey with the P-Bruins. There is a lot to like about his game and he could be turning into a fifth-round steal.
Goalie Reid Dyck (183rd) was selected in the sixth round to add depth to the organization and Jackson Edward, a seventh-round pick on defense is another physical blueliner at 6-foot-3 and 191 pounds. Time will tell with his class, but it has a promising outlook.
3. 2021 Entry Draft
This draft class is top-heavy and could see the first prospect from two years ago make an impact in Boston in 2023-24. First-round pick Fabian Lysell, picked 21st overall, spent his first pro season in Providence with 14 goals and 23 assists in 54 games in 2022-23. The speedy right wing has a skill set that is impressive and could find himself wearing the Spoked-B at some point, but he is currently with Providence this season.
Third-round pick Brett Harrison had a head-turning season in the OHL with the Oshawa Generals and Windsor Spitfires, combining for 34 goals and 35 assists, but it was his quick shot and speed that raised some eyebrows. What helped him was playing alongside Shane Wright, a Kraken prospect, following a trade in January from Oshawa to Windsor. This has the makings of a third-round steal for Sweeney.
Goalie Philip Svedeback played well in his freshman season at Providence College, while Oskar Jellvik (fifth round) and Andre Gasseau (seventh round) had good freshman seasons at Boston College and having a strong 2023-24 season for the Eagles. Jellvik had nine goals and eight assists in 17 games, while Gasseau has five goals and 12 points. Defensemen Ryan Mast (sixth round) and Ty Gallagher each took a step in their development. Mast is another big-bodied blueliner at 6-foot-5 and 213 pounds who had eight goals and 22 assists with the Sarnia Sting in the OHL.
2. 2016 Entry Draft
Sweeney’s second Entry Draft is one with two first-round picks that have turned into selections that played a big part in the 2022-23 historic season. Defenseman Charlie McAvoy was picked 14th and he’s turned into a franchise defenseman. Signed to an eight-year, $76 million contract, he is the most important part of the defense into the future and a yearly candidate for the Norris Trophy. With his second pick in the first round, 30th overall, Sweeney went outside the box with Trent Frederic, who had a break-out 2022-23 season with 17 goals and 14 assists mainly on the third line. In 30 games this season, he has seven goals and 13 points
Second-round pick, defenseman Ryan Lindgren, was traded to the New York Rangers and has carved out a top-four role with them. Back-to-back fifth-round picks, Joona Koppanen and Cameron Clarke, have had two different careers in the organization. Koppanen made his NHL debut this season with an assist in five games along with some penalty-killing minutes, but he signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins over the summer as a free agent. Clarke is no longer in the organization.
The final pick, Oskar Steen, has 43 NHL games under his belt in Boston with four goals and four assists, and this season, he has one goal in 17 games. For a sixth-round pick, Steen has some upside.
1. 2020 Entry Draft
This class only had four selections because of the coronavirus pandemic, however, this class has the Bruins’ top defensive prospect Mason Lohrei, picked 58th overall. The 6-foot-4, 204-pound left-shot defenseman had a strong two seasons at Ohio State and signed a two-year entry-level contract, paving the way for him to make his NHL debut and he has been a solid addition to the blue line. In 15 games this season, he has two goals and five points.
Third-round pick Trevor Kuntar had three good years at Boston College and signed his entry-level contract in March of 2022. A big strong forward who had 13 goals and 16 assists in his junior season of 2022-23, he is projected to be a middle-six forward and he is currently in Providence. Defenseman Mason Langenbrunner picked in the fifth round has yet to prove he’s been worthy of that selection, while the final pick, Riley Duran, is a tough forward who plays hard and in all situations for Providence College.
What does Sweeney have in store for 2023? With a limited number of picks, it remains to be seen, but whoever he picks is going to end up somewhere on this list, it’s just a matter of where.
