The Bruins didn't have a first-round pick on Thursday night after trading theirs to Anaheim for Hampus Lindholm, but they did make six picks on Day 2 of the NHL Draft in Rounds 2-7.
Here's a look at all the Bruins' 2022 draft picks:
2nd round, 54 overall: Matthew Poitras, C, Guelph (OHL)
Poitras (pronounced PAW-trah) is listed at 5-foot-11, 176 pounds. He's a right-shot center who had 21 goals and 29 assists in 68 games last season, ranking third on his team in points.
The Ontario native is regarded as a smart, two-way player and a hard worker who has some skill with the puck and a very good shot. However, reports say his skating needs some work and that he might lack real high-end upside.
Poitras may be seen as a little bit of a reach at 54. Here's a look at where some top rankings had him:
TSN's Bob McKenzie: 74
TSN's Craig Button: 87
The Athletic's Scott Wheeler: 64
The Athletic's Corey Pronman: 101
Daily Faceoff's Chris Peters: 85
Elite Prospects: 78
Interestingly, the Bruins passed on Poitras's Guelph teammate and fellow center Danny Zhilkin, a player more than a few B's fans wanted the team to take. Zhilkin had five more points than Poitras and was generally ranked higher than him (and closer to the 54 range). Zhilkin wound up going 77th to the Winnipeg Jets.
Here are some video highlights of Poitras and a little bit of quick analysis from a couple experts:
4th round, 117 overall: Cole Spicer, C, USA U-18 (NTDP)
The Bruins traded their third-round pick (91 overall) to Seattle for a fourth (117) and fifth (132).
At 117, they went with another center in Spicer, who had 20 goals and 19 assists in 58 games with the U.S. National Team Development Program this past season. That ranked eighth on the team, with the seven teammates ahead of him having already been drafted this weekend.
Spicer, a native of North Dakota, is listed at 5-foot-10, 176 pounds. Spicer is considered a gritty, hard worker who always brings an all-out effort and goes to dirty areas. Despite being on the smaller side, he served as a net-front presence on the USNTDP power play.
Spicer will be heading to the University of Minnesota-Duluth in the fall. That is a program the Bruins like and are familiar with, as they've signed a couple Bulldogs (Karson Kuhlman, Nick Wolff) and currently have 2019 third-round pick Quinn Olson there as well. They also interviewed UMD's longtime coach, Scott Sandelin, during their recent coaching search.
Spicer was ranked in the top 100 in a number of pre-draft rankings, including from FC Hockey (90), McKeen's Hockey (82), Dobber Prospects (91), The Athletic's Scott Wheeler (99) and Daily Faceoff's Chris Peters (79).
Here are some highlights of Spicer and a few Twitter breakdowns from the experts:
4th round, 119 overall: Dans Locmelis, C, Lulea U-20 (Sweden)
The Bruins made it a hat trick of centers with their first three picks, as they clearly wanted to address what's been their weakest position prospects-wise.
Locmelis is a 6-foot, 170-pound left shot who's a native of Latvia. He had 18 goals and 16 assists in 44 games for Lulea's junior team in Sweden, which put him second on the squad. He also got called up to Lulea's pro team for two games.
Locmelis' scouting reports have some similarities to those of Poitras and Spicer, in that he's considered a smart, two-way player and a hard worker, but one who might lack in high-end skill.
Locmelis is the fourth player the Bruins have drafted off a Swedish team in the last two years. As with last year, it's safe to say that European scouting coordinator P.J. Axelsson had a big hand in the pick.
Here's a couple nice setups from Locmelis:
5th round, 132 overall: Frederic Brunet, D, Rimouski (QMJHL)
The Bruins finally changed things up in the fifth, taking Brunet, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound left-shot defenseman out of Quebec. Brunet went undrafted last year.
Brunet is a skilled puck-mover and passer who can lead breakouts and transitions and activate in the offensive zone. His 46 points (12 goals, 34 assists) in 63 games this past season ranked fourth on Rimouski and 11th among all QMJHL defensemen. Scouting reports indicate he has work to do defensively, and Brunet himself told reporters at the draft that he wants to improve his defensive play.
Another interesting thing Brunet told reports in Montreal: He's training with Patrice Bergeron in Quebec City this summer. Read more about that here:
Related
Here are a couple breakdowns of Brunet's game, and a highlight of a goal:
6th round, 183 overall: Reid Dyck, G, Swift Current (WHL)
The Bruins added to their organizational goalie pool in the sixth round. Dyck is a 6-foot-4, raw, athletic netminder who had stats that weren't very good (6-12-1, .884 save percentage) on a Swift Current team that wasn't very good (26-35-7, out of the playoffs).
Dyck joins 2021 fourth-round Philip Svedeback (heading to Providence College this fall) and 2022 college free agent signing Brandon Bussi (who finished the season with the P-Bruins) as recent additions to the Bruins' goalie pipeline. They can afford to be very patient with Dyck.
Here's a little more on Dyck, including some video highlights:
7th round, 200 overall: Jackson Edward, D, London (OHL)
Not to be confused with Jack Edwards, Jackson Edward is a 6-foot-2, left-shot defensive defenseman who is very physical, sometimes to the point of being undisciplined.
While his six points (zero goals) in 54 games for London this past season may lead you to believe there's nothing else to his game, scouting reports say that Edward is also a good skater who can handle the puck and that there might be room for him to add more offense to his game. He was a point-per-game player at the U16 and U15 levels.
This late in the draft, that's the kind of player you take a chance on and hope some of that offense does start to surface.
Edward, an Ontario native, told reporters he grew up a Bruins fan and named Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand as his favorite players. Here's some more on him:
7th round, 215 overall: Traded to Los Angeles for a 2023 7th-round pick