Spellbinding surprise by Sweeney
Urho Vaakanainen was very surprised he was selected by the Bruins with the 18th pick in the NHL draft last night at the United Center. He was not alone. As they have so many times before, the Bruins, at least to an extent, eschewed the consensus predraft prognostications in selecting the smooth-skating, quick 18-year-old Finnish defenseman.
Before the draft opened, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney also was at work on another task: Trying to trade his No. 18 pick and maybe other considerations to acquire a veteran defenseman. That deal failed to materialize. “I was on record beforehand saying we would be offering our first-round pick for targeted, specific players, and we did do that,” said Sweeney. “I don’t blame teams for not wanting to do it. So we were comfortable with our pick and continuing to build what we think is a good group of guys.”
There was predraft speculation the B’s were interested in Minnesota’s Marco Scandella, a 27-yearold defenseman with $4 million a year left on his contract for the next three years. Scandella did not move. Sweeney said he will continue his search for a suitable trade to upgrade the rearguard during Day 2 of the draft today, and beyond.
The B’s also explored trading down in the first round. “But we were excited when Urho was still there,” said the GM.
But it probably would have surprised many if he hadn’t been.
The site mynhldraft.com nailed the B’s choice of Vaakanainen with its preview, but other sites ranked him 27th, 28th and 32nd, which would have dropped him into Round 2. There was speculation the 6-foot-1, 185-pound left-shooting blueliner might be around for the B’s second-round pick at No. 53.
“Good skater, good size, but not really with lot of real higher end talent,” said Red Line Report scout Kirk Luedeke after the pick. “He’s got the size and the length and the skating to be a player, but he’s kind of vanilla. He doesn’t have the wow factor.
“I had him as a second-round pick. Some scouting services had him pretty high, like the middle of the first round. I wasn’t one of them. It’s interesting. They must really like him.”
Fans with a perspective on unfortunate choices by the Bruins in years past could not be blamed for taking a cynical view on this pick, and thinking about other European defensemen picked by the team, including Lars Jonsson (No. 7 overall in 2000), Yuri Alexandrov (No. 37 in 2006) and Linus Arnesson (No. 60 in 2013). The Bruins’ scouts touted all three as terrific prospects, but they played little or not at all in the NHL.
But with the negativity out of the way, listen to Sweeney on the kid, and Vaakanainen — yeah, we have to get used to spelling that name — on himself:
“He’s a confident kid,” Sweeney said. “I think he understands what his strengths are, in describing himself as a very, very good skater. He’s got confidence because he’s played against men the last 11⁄ years (in the Finnish elite league). That came across in his interview and I’m sure with (the press).
“We think there’s a lot of upside on both sides — as a 200-foot player, getting back, being able to transition pucks, and also being able to cover the ice.”
Indeed, Vaakanainen was candid and confident in speaking about his strengths and the areas he knows he has to improve.
“I think I’m a great skater, I’m good with the puck, I make a good first pass,” he said. “I’m the complete package, a two-way defenseman. I was expecting to be taken in the first round, (but) I wasn’t expecting to be taken by Boston.”
And the areas he’ll seek to improve on when he returns to the Finnish JYP club next season. He will take part at development camp with the B’s next month, when fans can get a firsthand look.
“I have to get some strength, get my shot better, (work) on the offensive blue line,” he said. “That’s what I have to work on.”
So the Bruins and their fans have to hope he is successful in making the needed improvements, and becomes very quickly more than just a hard-to-spell name on a list — but an actual contributing part of the team’s lineup.