Bruins Only Had One Player Drafted Since 2018 Play Meaningful Minutes originally appeared on NESN.
Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Boston Bruins are oozing with young talent at this particular junction. James Hagens just made his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, Dean Letourneau looks like a prospect fans can get excited about and Matthew Poitras has earned multiple stints in Boston while climbing through the minor league ranks.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that since 2018, the Bruins have only drafted one player who played meaningful minutes for them in this year’s playoff run.
I’ll give the young bucks a break, but even bringing our focus to only players taken in 2021 and earlier creates a very bleak image.
The first selection of the Bruins’ 2018 draft, Axel Andersson, was traded to Anaheim two years later and never played a minute in the NHL.
John Beecher, the Bruins’ 2019 first-round pick, played 133 games as a Bruin but scored only 11 goals and was traded to the Calgary Flames this past season.
Mason Lohrei was the first selection made by Boston in 2020, and he is the only one of the 21 players selected in the 2018-2021 time frame that had any real staying power.
Fabian Lysell, the Bruins 2021 first-round draft pick, is still trying to work his way through Boston’s farm system, but that is about he best case scenario for many of these selections.
More than 90% of the players who heard their names called have never made their NHL debut. A majority are no longer associated with the team and have returned to play for smaller professional leagues around the world.
The 2026 NHL Draft begins on June 26, and fans are hoping this year’s class can continue to flatten the curve of bad draft hauls this century.
More NHL: Insider Makes Bold Comment On Bruins Fourth Line Ahead Of Offseason