B’s plans stay quiet
Sweeney reveals little on draft
CHICAGO — Taking a break yesterday from meetings with his amateur and pro scouts, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney talked a bit about tonight’s NHL draft.
Let’s just hope there was more information exchanged during the scouting meetings than Sweeney offered. To sum up: Pretty much all options are open for Sweeney and the Bruins. They may hang on to their first-round pick and make the 18th selection; they may try to trade up or down in the first round; or they may be involved in a pre-draft trade, presumably to land an experienced defenseman.
Sweeney was sorry to lose defenseman Colin Miller in Wednesday’s expansion draft in Las Vegas. And, yes, the GM is happy with the roster he has, but — stop the presses — he’s always looking to improve the team.
Sweeney expected to be very busy from now to the first round, as he and 30 counterparts try to wheel and deal assets.
“I don’t know if anybody is catching their breath, other than the guys who took the red-eye (Wednesday) night from Vegas,” said Sweeney. “To tell you the truth, we were in a bit of a slowdown mode for a couple of days (before the expansion draft), and now I think it’s going to accelerate again throughout this weekend. And then you’ve got a busy period with the (pre-free agent) visitation stuff. So I think it’s going to pick back up.”
Sweeney still drops hints the B’s will trade up or down with the first-round pick, with a move down the more probable option.
It’s no secret the Bruins are still in search of a veteran defenseman. That’s been the case for several months. The Golden Knights stocked up on useful defensemen in the draft or associated trades, adding 15. Two were dealt yesterday, Trevor van Riemsdyk to Carolina for a second-round pick and David Schlemko to Montreal for a fifth-rounder.
“We all believed (Vegas GM George McPhee) was going to take a number of defensemen,” said Sweeney. “There could be an auction. We’ll have discussions there. There’ve been a lot of names tossed around the last little while.”
It’s quite possible Sweeney could package his firstround pick and a player to trade for a defenseman, the sort of deal that’s been speculated on for weeks.
“We feel very comfortable with the six (defensemen) we have on our roster right now,” said Sweeney. “The group itself has a lot of depth to it. We’re excited about our younger (defensemen). But if there is a target-specific thing, we’ll continue to look at it. We’ll be very busy between now and the draft.”
If the Bruins do make a first-round pick, Sweeney said it will not be based on position alone.
“I think if you start to just go with a positional need, you can get yourself into a bit of a bind,” he said. “We don’t want to pass on the best player we like in the draft at that position on the board. Organizationally, we’ve tried to attack the areas we felt we needed to have more depth. We’ve done a pretty good job of that overall.
“Now, again, those players have to grow and develop. They’re not all going to play (in the NHL) but we believe a lot of them will. So again, we have areas we would like to address positionally, but (the first pick) is always going to come down to best player.”
Sweeney said his amateur scouts want to use the first pick; the pro scouts would opt to trade it for veteran help.
“(The amateur guys are) excited about the players who are potentially available at that spot, and there are players on either side of where we pick, if we went up in the draft, or more likely moved back to potentially take a player we think might still be there. So those are the two scenarios we’ve discussed with our amateur staff. On our pro side, we’ve certainly discussed players we may utilize and use the pick to acquire.”
Bruins fans, reminded in April how fun the playoffs are, may hope Sweeney goes the trade route instead of adding another prospect.