Bruins pick five new prospects on second day of 2012 draft
Bruind 3rd-round pick Grzelcyk
The second day of the draft saw the Bruins use five picks, including one acquired in a draft-day trade with Tampa Bay, to select would-be prospects in Pittsburgh today.
Headlining the group was Charlestown, Mass., native Matt Grzelcyk, whose father actually works on the bull gang at TD Garden.
Grzelcyk, taken in the third round, 85th overall, is headed to Boston University this fall after spending the last two years with the USNTDP. He’s a 5-foot-9, 171-pound defenseman who compares favorably to David Warsofsky and Matt Hunwick. He totaled 2-20-22 in 56 games last season.
The Bruins had two fifth-round picks — their own (145) and the one they picked up from Tampa Bay (131) in the Benoit Pouliot trade. At 131, they picked up Seth Griffith, a 19-year-old forward from London of the Ontario Hockey League, where he played with Bruins prospect Jared Knight on a team that advanced to the Memorial Cup championship game last season. In 68 games, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Griffith posted 45-40-85 totals. He was passed over in the 2011 draft.
With pick 145, Boston took 6-foot-2, 201-pound right winger Cody Payne. The 18-year-old is known for his grit, which he used to accumulate 107 penalty minutes last season with Plymouth of the OHL. He also posted 5-11-16 totals in 60 games for Plymouth and Oshawa.
The Bruins stayed within their family in the sixth round, as they used the 175th pick to select Matthew Benning, the nephew of Bruins assistant general manager Jim Benning. The younger Benning is a 6-0, 218-pound defenseman who posted 4-14-18 totals for Spruce Grove of the Alberta Junior Hockey League last season.
With their last pick, the Bruins took Colton Hargrove in the seventh round (205 overall). Hargrove is a 6-foot-3, 209-pound winger who has been playing for Fargo of the United States Hockey League. In 54 games last season, he posted 16-22-38 totals. He will turn 20 Monday.
yeah and with the exception of bergeron it took years for them to do so. i didn’t mean to imply you can’t get a great player, you’re just unlikely to get one at that point, especially in a weak draft. there are thousands of guys who never amounted to anything at those spots. look at the last 15 red wings drafts, very little production from drafting in that area.
Big Jim
Lucic, Bergeron, and Sidenberg were all picked after 24, I think they make an impact on most nights.
Bruins16
the subban pick is a good one for several reason. here are a couple.
you aren’t getting anyone who can step in and make a difference at 24 anyway. no impact forward, no defensman of consequence. furthermore, there isn’t any room on this team for anyone since they re-sign everyone. unless it’s a top notch forward, which you won’t get there, they aren’t making room for anybody.
this isn’t the nfl those late picks are longer term projects at best, or even flat out gambles. daniel paille was picked in that range for crying out loud. why not take a goalie who pojects well but may be several years away at this point?
most importantly, we all remember marty turco. any additional depth in goal is a good thing, particularly since they’ve lost a goalie off the nhl roster in thomas.
ultimately, this was a bad draft by most accounts. they got
a good prospect to fill a position of organizational need on a team with few needs at the nhl level. even if it’s a goalie in the first round it is a strong pick.
It is hard to determine the worth of a draft so close to the actual draft. Usually I would be critical of taking a goalie in the first round, but the clips seem to make Subban worth such an early pick. Having one or two under-sized D-man is not bad if they move the puck and they’re as tough as Andrew Ferrence. My biggest annoyance is the fact that we gave up a second round pick for Kaberle. If you check last year’s Stanley Cup Champion roster, there were more second round picks than first round picks.
BBB,
they got a guy who scored 85 points in the ohl in the late rounds and you’re not ok with that?
Just as a follow up on Griffith, I heard a radio interview on 98.5 where it was said that Griffith doesn’t do any one thing spectacularly and his speed is an issue. It was said that he knows how to be in the right place at the right time and the puck always finds him, he can score at the junior level because they consider him to have an “NHL release”.
[...] for the other five picks the Bruins made, I’m not going to BS you and pretend like I know anything about them at this time. [...]
George, I agree. Take his size ut and he was easily drafted last year. Kid(Griffith) obviously has skill. Maybe another Marchand sized scorer…Hopefully
Terrible weekend at the draft table for my boys. Luckily, our NHL team is so good that we can survive a bad draft. Aside from Subban (I am coming to term with that pick), all the others are nothing to write home about.
I remember someone trumpeting Griffith and Houser. Houser was the OHL player of the year and Griffith should have been picked last year but his size isn’t great. He’s got a very accurate shot and is a goal scorer. He’s better than Knight as far as OHLers go.
Strange that a kid like Griffith can put up 45 goals and not be taken until the 5th round. It must be his size and that he’s 19 already.
Bruins Nation was clamoring for another under-sized D-man to add to Warsofsky & Torey Krug.