Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney did a terrific job lining up draft picks to speed up a team reset in 2015.
The Bruins ended up with three consecutive picks in the middle of the first round and a huge opportunity to surround Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Tuukka Rask etc. with depth and secondary scoring.
The setup was terrific, but the execution was awful.
The Bruins took Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn with the 13th, 14th and 15th overall picks. The next three players taken? Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot. Looking back at NHL Drafts to see what could have been is using 20/20 hindsight to an extraordinary degree. Every team in the league has regrets and would have done things differently if they were allowed to change their picks seven years later.
But has anyone ever had three consecutive picks go so poorly?
Bruins fans were forced to hang their hat on Jake DeBrusk at least turning into a solid second line scorer who battles and hits and does all the dirty work necessary to win hockey games. At least, that’s what they thought after he scored 27 goals and 42 points in 68 games in just his second NHL season.
Since then? He has 27 goals and 55 points in 123 games played. That includes just 14 points in 41 games last season and six points in 17 games this year.
It has culminated in DeBrusk asking the Bruins for a trade over the weekend after being made a healthy scratch.
He is just 25 years old, has a 27 goal season on his resume and has already scored 16 postseason goals in his NHL career. But, he has also been dogged with questions about his determination and work ethic. Those are not good things to have hanging over your head if you are a young hockey player.
DeBrusk also earns $3.675 against the salary cap this season. He is a restricted free agent after this season and since his salary for the year is $4.85 million, that is what his qualifying offer will be at the end of the season. So, he either gets offered nearly $5 million or he becomes an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
These things make his trade request difficult to navigate, but there will still be teams willing to deal for DeBrusk. These three teams make the most sense.