The Boston Bruins missed the playoffs for the first tine in a decade after a disastrous 2024-25 season. Their bad luck continued on Monday night when they left the NHL draft lottery with the worst possible pick.
The Bruins pulled ball number seven on Monday night, the lowest pick the team was eligible for. However, it is still the highest the team has picked since 2011. General manager Don Sweeney is excited about the possibilities that come with a top ten selection.
“We’re still picking in the upper echelon of the Draft, which we haven’t done for a significant time period,” Sweeney said in a press conference. “So, we feel very comfortable in terms of where the top seven picks are and we’ll get a good player and an impact player, regardless of the disappointment of moving back a couple spots. That’s just the nature of the lottery.”
Sweeney On How He Will Use The Pick
The team isn’t ruling anything out. They will be exploring players at every position.
“I don’t think we’re going to be anchored in, whether it’s positionally…we’re just trying to take the best player that has a chance to be the best player in the National Hockey League that he’s capable of being,” said Sweeney. “We always value the hockey sense, you always value skating, always value how competitive a player is, and you try to take the best player that you possibly can.”
Sweeney is even entertaining the idea of the team trading the pick.
“If you have a chance to win the lottery, I’m sure you receive phone calls in terms of whether or not you’ll ever move that pick,” said Sweeney. “At seven, you still may, difficult to move up from there, but we’ll do our due diligence in terms of what teams may want to jockey around and we still feel very comfortable about the scouting that we’ve done and the player we’re going to get it at seven if we decide to stay there.”
What The Experts Are Saying
Of the eight sources examined by NESN’s Jason Ounpraseuth, seven predicted the team would draft a forward. Five of those seven slated a center at the seventh overall selection with Roger McQueen emerging as a popular name.
“It’s important to note that things obviously will change throughout the pre-draft process, and opinions of experts will be unique based on how they see the top-six picks,” Ounpraseuth wrote. “However, McQueen was a popular pick following the draft lottery due to his skill set matching how the Bruins want to play.”
Cory Woodroof of For The Win sent McQueen to Boston in his top ten mock.
“The Bruins need more offense, and McQueen has a high ceiling. He could technically go higher than this in the top 10, and he could fall altogether,” Woodroof wrote. “However, Boston takes him here and hopes he can pad the scoresheet for years to come. We know the fans at TD Garden would love to see a guy like McQueen in a Boston uniform.”
McQueen’s calling card is his size. Standing at six-foot-five the big bodied center mixes size with edge work in an enticing combination of big league potential.
“Roger McQueen is a monster,” wrote James Dator of SB Nation. “The 6-foot-5 center lets his presence be known on the ice and gives me major Joe Thornton vibes in the middle. That might seem like incredibly high praise, but the potential is there. McQueen could become a very special player.”
