Bruins’ reinvention model fodder for Canucks fans

VANCOUVER — Fifteen months after losing in a Stanley Cup final, the Boston Bruins traded one of their core defencemen for picks.

No one knew it at the time, but moving Johnny Boychuk was the first play in a string of vets-for-draft picks deals that have helped propel the Bruins back to the top of the NHL.

There was much praise heaped on the Trevor Linden-era Canucks this week for apparent draft successes and a prospect pool that some are labelling “unprecedented.”

And it may yet be that.

But since Linden took over as Canucks president, the Bruins have drafted five players who are currently having an impact in the NHL, and another who has helped this season. The Canucks have one.

How long would GM Jim Benning’s extension have been if he had five draft picks in his lineup right now? Longer than three is a safe bet.

The Bruins return to Rogers Arena tonight having rebuilt from their run to the 2011 championship.

To do it, they succeeded where the Canucks have not, staying competitive while adding one group of young players who are already helping the team win in the NHL and another collection of interesting prospects who will have their chance to do it soon enough.

It’s all difficult to stomach among a portion of Vancouver’s hockey fans, who have seen their team chase the “Boston model,” plucking one of the Bruins’ top personnel guys to run the Canucks, only to then watch the Bruins flip their franchise upside down.

Since 2014, Boston has used the draft to add one of the best young defencemen in the league in Charlie McAvoy, one of the top under-25 goal scorers in David Pastrnak, 21, and a group of slight-buthighly skilled forwards in Danton Heinen, Anders Bjork and Jake DeBrusk.

All this for a team that blew its chance to add Mathew Barzal, passing on him three straight times in the first round of the 2015 NHL entry draft.

The dramatic part of the Bruins’ facelift began just days before the 2014-15 season. For cap reasons, Boston reluctantly made the Boychuk deal. One of the picks Boston got back was later used to select Brandon Carlo, a 21-year-old defenceman who is currently playing in their top four.

At the end of the season, Boston didn’t stop. The Bruins turned Milan Lucic into two first-round picks and moved Dougie Hamilton for a first- and two second-round picks. The transactions are exactly the types of deals many in Vancouver have been yearning for since Benning took over as general manager.