Boston Bruins 2025 NHL Draft Recap

Boston Bruins 2025 NHL Draft Recap

[Music] welcome back to B&G Hockey where it’s always black and gold don Sweeny’s goal coming out of this draft was to add more talent scoring and competitiveness to his very shallow prospect pipeline they absolutely did that when they got the steal of the draft in James Hagens at seventh overall but it’s hard to say they did that in rounds two through seven today where the drafting looked much more of the same from this Bruins front office there were a few bright spots that we’ll get into as we break down all six players and a couple of trades that they made during day two of the draft let’s talk about it we’re starting things off on a positive note with the first selection of day two for the Bruins 51st overall in the second round they select forward William Moore he’s an 18-year-old 6’3 left shot centerman who could also play left wing but definitely projects more as a center last season for the US National Development Program in 64 games he had 27 goals 32 assists for a total of 59 points this is a guy who really fell down the draft board so once again the Bruins get lucky here where a guy falls into their lap and they don’t overthink it they just grab the talent because they desperately need it this was a guy who a lot of people had ranked in the mid30s and we got him at 51 he’s a two-way centerman who’s always in and around the net at both ends of the ice not afraid to defend down low but definitely at the offensive zone he’s always tipping pucks always smashing in rebounds screening the goalender and plays hard he’s a smart hockey player with good hands plays in all situations so this is a guy who’s a PK power play specialist plays a big role on his teams and this season he’ll be going to of all places Boston College where he’s once again expected to play a pretty big role cuz that team is losing out on some pretty good players now as a lot of you might know James Hagens will also be attending Boston College and basically half the roster is Bruins prospects including last year’s first round pick Dean Lerno and a couple of other solid prospects and Oscar Jelvic and Andre Gassau so it’s really exciting to see this group kind of build some chemistry together and to be able to watch them here in our own backyard i know a lot of people are frustrated like “Oh can Don drive more than five minutes down the street to find a prospect?” Yes I understand that but a lot of people seem to have this player higher than he was picked so it really was the right pick at that time especially for an organization that is desperate for center depth and even though you finally got a real one in James Hagens you can’t have enough and this kid projects to be a pretty solid middle 61 if you have a one-two punch of Hagens and more in the future you’ll be happy you ended up grabbing both his NHL comparables he said he models his game after Matt Baldy a lot of people compared him to like a Morgan Geeky a Sam Bennett if he doesn’t really hit his ceiling obviously a lot of people are in on a Sam Bennett type player i’m much more willing to take that guy in the second round than I am in the first round with a guy like a Brady Martin so I’m really glad that the Bruins went for their kind of high ceiling low floor player in the second round instead of with their top seven pick i absolutely love what the Bruins did with their first and second pick they got two guys who are supposed to go much higher than where we selected them two guys who have a ton of upside and are almost guaranteed to make the NHL which as we know Bruins fans almost all of our draft picks from the Don Sweeney era don’t even play NHL games never mind be good NHLers when they get there heck we’re excited that John Beecher even made the team and he’s just a fourthline bum and that’s the kind of guys we’ve been selecting for so long we don’t have to keep holding our breath waiting for a guy like a Fabian Lysel i think these players are one maybe two years away from being legit NHL players and helping us immediately i love that these two are already friends in fact Moore already said he’s looking up to Hagens and sees him as a bit of a role model so I think that’s kind of cool and the fact that they’re going to be able to create that chemistry at Boston College is something I really love the Bruins need to find their culture find their room again they were the best room in the NHL for a really long time and having these prospects kind of come together at Boston College and grow as the next wave of Bruins really can’t hurt us moving forward especially if they play big roles so this was another slam dunk pick by Dawn really happy this guy fell to us and I’m really happy the Bruins didn’t overthink this you need centers you get a big centerman here with a ton of skill going to school in your own backyard i give this pick an A we started off on a positive note now it’s time to jump right into the negative where with the 61st overall pick in the second round the Bruins select Vakanin i mean Zaboral I mean Liam Patterson he’s a 6’2 left shot defenseman i’ll give you the stats cuz that’s probably the best part of this in 39 games he had six goals 15 assists for a total of 21 points that’s perfectly fine but this player was projected to go between 94 and 154 and the Bruins took him in the second round at 61 now he’s a mobile defenseman who’s pretty good two ways not that great in his own end yet but has a really solid breakout pass has some room to grow his game definitely needs to develop in the defensive end so sounds basically like a Mason Laurai at best and we’ve already got him locked up for long enough his NHL comparable is Travis Sanheim i would be stunned if this player ever became Travis Sanheim now maybe I’ll be totally wrong i’ll come back to this video and we’ll all laugh but this just feels like a classic Bruins pick and after doing two fantastic picks with their first two I thought we were finally changing our ways this doesn’t scream skill this doesn’t scream talent to me this screams reach which is what we’ve been doing for so many years and is the biggest reason we have the worst prospect pool and guys who never even play NHL games so let me know your thoughts on this player especially cuz I am down down down on this guy like I said he’s a second round pick we’ll see maybe he becomes something but I give this a C minus at best i’m even hovering around a D we’re gonna jump back to the positive side for a minute here but spoiler alert that’ll probably be the last player we’re positive about so if you’re a happy golucky Bruins fan thanks for watching the Bruins had the 69th pick but they traded it to the Montreal Canadians for the 79th overall pick and the 108th overall pick not really that big of a deal it’s kind of a shallow draft and you only move down a couple spots and I actually really like the player the Bruins got with the 79th pick in the third round they select forward Cooper Simpson he’s an 18-year-old six-foot left shot left winger in 31 games he scored 49 goals 34 assists for a total of 83 points then in nine games with the Tri City Storm he had seven goals one assist for a total of eight points this guy is a goalcorer and for an organization that only picks two-way defensive forwards this is such a breath of fresh air talk about talent and skill this kid has it known as one of the best shots in the draft even though he went in the third round he’s a guy who’s a little bit smaller so that could be definitely a reason that he fell and he’s not that proven yet at a higher level but that being said if the puck comes to this kid he’s shooting it he’s a sniper he’s a finisher he’s a goalcorer and the Bruins haven’t drafted one of those since basically David Pastnac he’s also got good hands and he’s creative i’m looking forward to seeing him play at North Dakota with fellow top Bruins prospect Will Zeers i think this is a kid who could really grow into something special and he’s got a little bit of edge to him in fact his NHL comparable Brad Marshian so it’d be great to just restart that process all over again and have another 15 years of an absolute stud on the wing who can drive play bring that bit of physicality and edge and score goals cuz boy do the Bruins need that this is a solid pick in the third round and for a guy you traded down for I think he’s actually a slam dunk i give this pick a B i could make a 20inute video just on how comical this pick is and it’s so Bruins now remember they usually post these pictures with a picture of the player actually playing hockey and then their name and when they were selected but the Bruins couldn’t even find a photo of this player in fact I’m not even sure he’s even a real person it’s Vashek Blenar I believe is how you pronounce it but he also has a fake name of Vashek Richards so if you try to Google this guy you can’t even find him because Google doesn’t even know he exists he’s a 6’4 left shot D apparently so that’s great you do add a little bit of size in 38 games he supposedly scored six goals 15 assists for a total of 21 points but yikes this is a reach reach reach the guys on the panel didn’t even bother talking about him probably cuz they didn’t know who he was and again here we go with Don Sweeney just messing around the draft board taking guys that no one’s even heard of that no one even has a picture of so again maybe I’m wrong i know nothing just like everyone knows nothing about these 18-year-olds this guy’s probably going to be a star and then there will be a bunch of pictures of him on the internet but for right now this is a D the only reason it’s not an F is that he’s 6’4 so we finally got some size but other than that what an awful pick the Bruins next pick was 108th overall but they traded that to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a fourth round pick next season where they are absolutely loaded with two first round picks a second round pick a third and now two fourths so I love that the Bruins have that draft capital especially cuz next year is expected to be a much better draft and the way they were going today I was perfectly fine with them letting go of that draft pick and just moving later down the board so they did still hold the 133rd pick where in the fifth round they selected forward Cole Chandler he’s an 18-year-old left shot centerman who’s 6’2 in 64 games he had 13 goals 19 assists for a total of 32 points and in the playoffs he had 12 points in 16 games he was sick at the beginning of the season and he said that was part of the reason why he had a slower start so maybe this guy would have had a better season and been higher up the draft board seems like a hard worker solid playmaker little bit of physicality to his game and has some subtle skill needs a lot of time to kind of develop his overall game and will likely be nothing more than a bottom six player at the NHL but like we said if guys are playing NHL games for the Bruins they’re one of their better prospects cuz not many guys make it past Providence so I would like to see that out of this player other than that I’m not too excited about it i don’t like the fact that they didn’t select a single right-handed player in this draft in fact they came out of it with four left shot centermen and if the goal is really to select the best players and guys you see on your roster in the future you’re going to have a lot of the same type player so I just kind of wanted to see them switch it up a little bit felt like they could have used some depth in the goalending position and some more defenseman but they get another left shot centerman so I probably give it a C as this draft mercifully comes to an end the Bruins still have one more pick in the sixth round 165th overall where they select hm let me see oh I know a left shot centerman Kel Yelleno Pionov who knows close enough an 18-year-old 6- foot left shot center who in 35 games had 13 goals 10 assists for a total of 23 points again this is basically the same player they just took the round before he’s got a good defensive stick he’s competitive seems to be a bottom six guy his very exciting NHL comparable is Yesper Boquist who is a Stanley Cup champion now so again we could all use that type of player and if this guy becomes that and we win a cup I’ll probably love him and be psyched that we took him but until then doesn’t feel like anything too exciting now he was rising up the draft board a little bit from where he once was and does seem to have a bit more room to grow his game and does seem to be getting better as a prospect but again drafting another left shot centerman when you had no right shot forwards of any kind you needed right shot D they didn’t have any right shot D they only got left shot D and they didn’t get any goalies and you’re probably about to lose your two young goalies in free agency next week so all in all I felt like this was an okay draft but only because of the way they drafted at the top well another Don Sweeney draft has come and gone and even though he had two special players fall into his lap he did make the right pick so I have to give him credit for that when it came to the rest it felt like more of the same and I got to admit I’m pretty nervous let me know your thoughts let me know if you find a picture of Blenar too in the comments if you’re looking forward to following these players just turn the TV on to Boston College i am counting the seconds until James Hagens and even a guy like William Moore are playing in the black and gold sweater cuz I think those are two really good players especially Hagens i am over the moon about that pick and I don’t even care about the rest of the guys hopefully they can fight away the Bruins draft demons and this ends up being a fantastic class for us but luckily we have plenty of picks next season and now we turn our attention to free agency and hopefully a few trades because this roster especially up front at the NHL level still needs a lot of help they need some help on the right side D and I’m worried about the goalending position too if we’re going to lose our two young guys so there’s still a lot of work to be done but so far so good for this off seasonason for Don Sweeney adding a couple of elite level players to his prospect pool that desperately needed it so again let me know what you thought of this draft down below in the comments if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a big like and if you haven’t already subscribe [Music] oh hey

Don Sweeney and the Boston Bruins selected seven players and made two trades during the 2025 NHL Draft. In this video I look at all the players selected and give my grades on the pick for the Bruins. I also give my thoughts on the Bruins roster depth and the current state of their prospect pool. Players talked about in this video include James Hagens, William Moore, Cooper Simpson, Liam Pettersson, Cole Chandler, Kirill Yemelyanov, and Vashek Blanar.