Bruins trying to sift through the science of finding value in the NHL Entry Draft haystack

Boston Globe

07-06-2025

The Black & Gold dropped their Spoked-B marker on him at No. 45 in 2003, with no one — including the Canadiens, who passed on him twice — expecting the little-known, demure kid from Quebec City would turn into one of the game's greatest two-way centermen.
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Would it be fair, these 20-plus years later, to look at Bergeron, who had yet to turn 18 the day of that draft in Nashville, and think the Bruins could use his amateur career path and experience as a sort of template for future picks?
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'It's somewhat not fair,' said a smiling
Ryan Nadeau
, here in his eighth season as the Bruins director of amateur scouting, 'but we do it anyway, right?
'Some of what are considered the best picks in the draft tend to be outliers … players when you look and you see maybe the statistics don't stand out the way they do for some other guys. They don't have the [physical] frame of some other players or they don't have sort of the production and pedigree of those top guys. It's a funny business, the draft.'
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As Nadeau noted,
Sidney Crosby
(No. 1, 2005) and
Connor McDavid
(No. 1, 2015) can't be credited as 'great picks,' per se, by the Penguins and Oilers, respectively. True, too, of
Mario Lemieux
,
Eric Lindros
, and
Vincent LeCavalier
, all No. 1 picks who fulfilled the 'franchise player' expectations they carried into their draft years. High, high quality, and easy draft pickings as low-hanging fruit.
'Straight forward, easy picks and they are great players,' Nadeau said. 'But when you really look at the value in the draft, we all are amazed at the picks that tend to defy the logic of where they got picked. Usually, a lot of it is that they are coming from a lower level of [competition], where it's sort of hard to correlate or justify where they're going to get to in the NHL, or players whose production wasn't that high.'
Exhibit A, Bergeron, who played one full season of top Canadian junior hockey and finished third in scoring (23-50—73) for QMJHL Acadie-Bathurst. Its top producers were
Olivier Filion
, who was never drafted, and
Jonathan Ferland
, chosen No. 212 by the Canadiens in the prior year's draft. Ferland played all of seven games for the Habs and shipped off for an extended career in Europe after five seasons at AHL Hamilton, which then was Montreeal's top farm team.
Nadeau began working for the Bruins in an entry-level communications role only a week or two before the Bruins drafted Bergeron. He was the wide-eyed kid in Nashville that day who was among the first to shake Bergeron's hand and lead him around to various media interviews.
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'He didn't speak a ton of English, and I didn't speak a ton of French,' recalled Nadeau. 'But we were able to get along pretty well and . . . just such an amazing human.'
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Approximately this time next year, Bergeron will be eligible for Hall-of-Fame consideration for the first time. Feel free to book hotel rooms for the November 2026 induction in Toronto, for that No. 45 pick whose credentials were decidedly
comme ci comme ça
entering his draft class.
'When you think of Patrice Bergeron as a second-round pick,' mused Nadeau, with increasing enthusiasm in his voice as he spoke, 'or
Trying to figure out which ones will do that? Pin up that dart board and take aim?
'To some degree,' said Nadeau. 'We're going to do as much as we can to give us the best chance to draft a player who we believe will continue to progress, get better, and adjust their game.'
Longtime Bruins scout and advisor
Scott Bradley
spent 10 seasons in Nadeau's role as director of amateur scouting, including when the Bruins selected Bergeron.
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'I spent a lot of time with Scott and he was just an amazing mentor,' recalled Nadeau. 'I remember talking to him about Bergeron and he said, 'Well, if we knew he was that good, we shoulda picked him in the first round.' It's one of those things, and I know how much they loved [Bergeron], but you do have to project the draft and understand where players are valued and where they may go.'
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The Bruins hold the No. 7 pick — their first in the top 10 since they took
Dougie Hamilton
at No. 9 in 2011. Per Nadeau, they interviewed some 85 prospects (max 15 minutes each) during Combine week as a means of building their knowledge base for whatever is to come.
In part, he noted, that's also to prepare for a scenario that would include GM
Don Sweeney
moving the pick — be it for a slot higher or lower in the draft order, or to land a player who can become an immediate roster part of the franchise's rebuild. In all likelihood, a No. 7 pick, though prized, would need to develop elsewhere before being considered for the Boston varsity.
As the director of amateur scouting, to see No. 7 disappear would have to be crushing, no?
'The ultimate goal for all of us is to get the Boston Bruins back to winning the Stanley Cup,' said Nadeau. 'So if Don Sweeney gets offered something that he feels he can't refuse and moves the seventh pick, we're going to focus on our two second-round picks, our third-round pick. We're still sitting there with 51, 63, 69, which from our standpoint is really exciting.'
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Which is not to say that Nadeau cares to look past the prospect of bringing home No. 7. In his current position, the club's highest picks have been, dating back to the '18 draft, Nos. 57, 30, 58, 21, 54, 92, and 25.
'But we also understand the value of that to the organization — the context of where we are in terms of getting back in the playoffs next year,' he added, 'and the plan that
Cam [Neely]
and Donny and the Jacobs family have in place. While you look at it and say, 'Yeah, we worked really hard and it would be exciting to pick at No. 7,' it also would be exciting to think of what Donny might be able to bring on to our team with a trade. Our job is to be prepared for anything.'
Patrice Bergeron was the steal of his draft class, going from little-known, demure kid from Quebec City to one of the game's greatest two-way centermen.
CHIN, BARRY GLOBE STAFF PHOTO
REUNION ARENA
Bergeron, Chara on
bench? Dream on.
Symbolically,
Marco Sturm's
tenure behind the Bruins' bench begins Tuesday when the ex-Black & Gold winger steps behind a microphone on Causeway Street and shares his vision for how to guide the struggling franchise back to the playoffs.
Some of you expected something bolder there, such as 'back to being a perennial Cup favorite.' If these last 2-3 seasons have underscored anything, it's to have full appreciation for what's needed for roster talent, temerity, and intelligence to collect 16 Ws in the playoffs. The Bruins have done that
Much of Sturm's success will be tied directly to July 1, the day Sweeney will pick through the NHL's annual free-agent swap meet and, ideally, hand his new coach at least a couple of bona fide point producers. A body or two with the kind of pop Sturm delivered in his playing days — eight seasons of 20-plus goals — would be just what the franchise rehab doctor ordered.
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A No. 1 center would be the gift of gifts for the new coach. What's a swap meet without a pipe dream?
Key to Sturm's success, and a point Sweeney did not address on Thursday in
The 2024-25 Bruins couldn't score enough and couldn't defend at crucial times. Other than that bit of Tesla spontaneously combusting in the driveway, you know, great ride, was it not?
What an intriguing thought to have Sturm aided back there by both
Patrice Bergeron
and
Zdeno Chara
.
Like Sturm, neither of those future Hall-of-Famers ever has coached at the NHL level, but so what? All three were good pals during Sturm's five years here. All three helped create and curate the culture of discipline and professionalism and competitiveness that defined the team until it began to erode, in chunks, following the summer '23 retirements of Bergeron and Krejci.
Best to think, for now, of Bergeron and Chara in coaching roles as two more pipe dreams. Bergeron in his latter playing years repeatedly evinced very little interest (read: zero) in coaching upon retirement, particularly any time soon after calling it quits.
'For now, it's the same answer. I don't think it's in the cards,' said Bergeron on Friday in an interview with the Globe. 'Never say never. Time will tell. Right now I don't see it as something I would like to pursue. I guess I'm getting started coaching two of my sons. We'll see exactly. Never say never.'
All that said, who wouldn't want Bergy in the mix? Even if his job description was just 'assistant coach, special services, solely in charge of the power-play bumper.'
Chara, in the late stages of his playing career here, was a tiny bit more open to something in the coaching sphere. He has been around the team more in recent months at Sweeney's behest. It has been an unofficial role, one that both have yet to define.
In my conversation with Chara last week, just days after he was
'We're still determining the specifics of the role right now. I'm some sort of advisor, mentor and … we still have to determine which part of that need is the most important," he said. 'I enjoy the part of leadership and helping guys to be better leaders and better players, and that also depends on the new coach. You need to have that conversation, like, where am I going to be needed the most?'
Overall, Big Z added, he wants to help the franchise grow, inspire players, and 'just be part of it.'
'Because, to be honest, my heart is always going to be with the Bruins,' he said. 'I spent the majority of my career with the Bruins and I really care about them. When I came here in '06, and when I left in [
Brad Marchand
] and many other players, I was very proud of what we accomplished. Not just me, but what we as a group accomplished with the help of many other players.
'So I am attached. I am emotionally attached and living here, so I am physically here, too. I care. I care. I want to help. I want to be part of this turnaround and make it work again . . . but anything I do is for a new coach and Donny to sign off on it.'
Joe Sacco's Bruins were rarely, if ever, at full power during his tenure.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
QUIET GOODBYE
Sacco's long stint
was unfair judge
With zero fanfare,
Joe Sacco's
12-year tour on the Bruins coaching staff came to an end Thursday when he signed on to new Ranger coach
Mike Sullivan's
staff on Broadway.
The Blueshirts will be the third Original Six franchise for Medford's 'JoJo.' Less than a year after his third and final season at BU, he entered the NHL as a 21-year-old winger with the Maple Leafs in 1990-91.
Sacco was a total pro in his time in the Hub of Hockey, right up to
Jim Montgomery's
8-9-3 roster. The already compromised lot only grew worse with the injured
All that considered, the Bruins won more than they lost (19-15-3, .554) in the 37 games under Sacco's tutelage prior to losing McAvoy. A tour de force? No. But again, Sacco never had the services of Hampus Lindholm, had yet to see
Elias Lindholm
wake up and smell the Dunkin', and
Nikita Zadorov
needed months to separate the bountiful tricks from the treats in his game.
The only fair review of Sacco's work has to be those 37 games, even then with asterisks attached. He whipped up a whole lot of chicken salad from the detritus he was handed, only to have more detritus heaped on as the season played out.
Meanwhile, Sullivan (BU '90) also added
David Quinn
(BU '87), an ex-Ranger head coach, to his staff. The Ranger GM is
Chris Drury
(BU '98). The other NYR assistant coach named Thursday was
Ty Hennes
, who spent the last two seasons on Sullvan's staff in Pittsburgh. Hennes, 45, played four seasons (2000-04) at Boston College, a lesser-known institution located on the rural western portion of Comm Ave.
Henceforth, the hue of that trimming on the Blueshirts' sweaters, along with their pants, will be identified as 'Terrier Red.'
Loose pucks
Cam Neely
on Friday celebrated a milestone birthday — his 60th. The Hall-of-Fame winger, then with 51 goals in 201 games with the Canucks, was dealt to the Bruins on his 21st birthday in 1986. That day, Neely wrote via text, 'still is the best birthday gift.' . . .
Matt Keator
, who became Chara's agent early in the big defenseman's career with the Islanders, was in Stockholm last month for Big Z's induction into the IIHF HOF. Asked about Chara's new love for endurance competition — such as running marathons and IRONMAN competitions — Keator said, 'Of course, you knew he was going to do something to punish himself.' Keator recently added son
Ryan Keator
to his Win Hockey Agency masthead.
Ian Moran
, ex- of the Bruins and the Belmont Hill blue line, also is a 'Win' agent.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at