It’s official: the Boston Bruins have the seventh overall selection in the 2025 NHL Draft. It’s the highest pick they’ve had since they had the ninth overall selection in the 2011 NHL Draft where they selected defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Given the current state of the team and the weakness of their prospect pool, this is a selection that general manager Don Sweeney cannot miss. While it is highly unlikely that whoever is selected will be ready to play in the NHL next season, they need someone with a clear high ceiling and who will hopefully be able to make the leap within the next three or four seasons.
The Bruins’ strategy in the last few drafts has been clear: load up on centers. So far, they’ve done alright with Matthew Poitras making his NHL debut last season after being the team’s first selection of the 2022 NHL Draft at pick number 54. He spent 2024-25 split between the NHL and the American Hockey League (AHL), and has promise.
Still, even after loading up on centers the last few years, the Bruins should prioritize the position again in 2025 and use their seventh overall pick to draft a center, unless the top defenseman in the draft somehow falls into their laps. They need to continue to build out their center depth in order to be a competitor again for seasons to come.
Why a Center?
Most championship teams are built from the center out. Having depth down the middle is often the difference between a Stanley Cup winner and an early playoff exit. The Bruins have struggled with drafting and developing centers since Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci were second-round selections in the 2000s. Through the 2010s, the team wasn’t prioritizing centers in the draft since they had a bona fide, solid one-two combination that was going to last and did for many, many seasons.
The issues, of course, then come in that the Bruins were competitive in the seasons leading up to Krejci and Bergeron’s retirements, not giving them many first-round picks at all, and when they did have them, they were often later selections. While Sweeney has had some draft success in his career, he has not found and fully developed a true top center yet. There is hope and reasons to be optimistic with Poitras, and the jury is still out on a number of guys like last year’s first-round selection Dean Letourneau and 2022 selection Dans Locmelis. But in nine seasons at the helm, Sweeney’s drafting abilities have not yet produced a top-six center.
Without a guaranteed home run yet, Sweeney and the front office need to continue to prioritize centers. Good centers are truly a difference maker. The Bruins were competitive for so long because they had solid depth at the position for many, many seasons with Bergeron and Krejci at the top of the depth chart.
Homegrown depth at the position is also really important. Top centers are often the most expensive players to bring in during free agency or at the trade deadline, and there is no guarantee that they will work out. Look at what the Bruins had to pay to bring in Elias Lindholm last summer, and while he was fine overall in 2024-25, I don’t quite think he met the high expectations people had for him coming into the organization.
Continuing to Acquire Young Forwards
Since the 2025 calendar year began, the Bruins have been making an effort to bring in young forward talent to the organization. They already had a couple of guys in Poitras, Johnny Beecher, and Fabian Lysell, all of whom will hopefully take steps forward next season. At the trade deadline, they brought in Casey Mittelstadt, Fraser Minten, and Marat Khusnutdinov, all of whom should be pushing for bigger roles next season. There are also restricted free agents (RFAs) Georgii Merkulov and John Farinacci, who could be dark horse candidates for a roster spot.
The Bruins will have young talent on the team next season, and whoever they select in this year’s draft, along with last year’s first-round pick, Letourneau, will most likely take at least another season to develop. But their presence in the pipeline will get some excitement brewing and hopefully help set the team up for several seasons of success down the line.
So, who are the top centers in this year’s draft? Well, the first overall selection is predicted to be defenseman Matthew Schaefer. He’s followed by several centers in mock drafts, including guys like Michael Misa, James Hagens, Anton Frondell, and Porter Martone. While there is a slight chance one of them could slip down to the Bruins at seventh, most likely they will be off the board by the time they select.
The centers to keep an eye on for the Bruins are Jake O’Brien, Roger McQueen, and Caleb Desnoyers. O’Brien, coming out of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), has been held in high regard by scouts for his playmaking abilities. From the Western Hockey League (WHL), McQueen was considered a potential top-five pick before injuries limited him to only 17 games this season and could end up being a complete steal in a few years if the Bruins take a bit of a risk on him. Finally, Desnoyers, coming from the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), finished fifth in the league in points this past season and has strong skating and scoring abilities.
There are some excellent options for the Bruins at seventh overall to grab a center to add to the collection of young and exciting players they are finally bringing into the organization.
Can Sweeney Get it Done?
The need for more centers is clear, and the names that should be considered are also coming together. The question that remains is, will Sweeney make the right decision? As tired as Sweeney and the Bruins organization may be about getting questions around his drafting abilities, it is something that cannot be ignored, especially at the crossroads they’re currently at. These next few drafts really need to be hits, and Sweeney’s track record doesn’t necessarily inspire a lot of confidence.
