Boston Bruins urged to avoid disastrous decision with rare top draft pick

With the 7th overall pick in a deep draft for centers, the Boston Bruins have a clear path to finally address their long-standing hole down the middle.

The blueprint for Stanley Cup contenders is clear, and Boston’s missing piece is obvious

If this year’s playoffs proved anything, it’s that every team still standing in June has an elite presence at center. It wasn’t just offense, it was control, consistency, leadership.

The Panthers and Oilers both poured in goals throughout the Final, and it wasn’t by accident. Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, all of them drove their teams’ engines.

Across the league, the story’s the same. Winnipeg leaned on Mark Scheifele to top the standings. Toronto rode Auston Matthews to another division title. Vegas and Colorado won the last two Cups behind Jack Eichel and Nathan MacKinnon. And Carolina’s playoff consistency runs through Sebastian Aho.

It’s not a luxury. It’s a requirement.

Right now, Boston doesn’t have one.

Bergeron and Krejci left a void the Bruins haven’t come close to filling

After Bergeron and Krejci stepped away, the Bruins managed to hold things together for a while. But in 2024-25, that hole at center became impossible to ignore. The depth wasn’t there. The offense didn’t run through the middle. And when things got tight, Boston didn’t have a reliable answer in the faceoff circle or a true play-driver up the gut.

That’s what makes the No. 7 pick so important.

It’s the highest draft selection Boston has held since 2011. And this year’s class is unusually rich in centers, the kind who can lead a line, grow into a franchise fixture, and become part of the next generation.

James Hagens, Jake O’Brien, Brady Martin, Roger McQueen, any of them could be there at seven. And any one of them could be the piece Boston’s been missing.

There’s no shortcut to finding a No. 1 center, not anymore

Elite centers don’t hit the market like they used to. Teams know what they have and do everything they can to keep them. That’s why four of the top five cap hits in the NHL last season belonged to centers. You either draft one or pay a premium in assets or dollars to try and catch up.

The Bruins are not in a position to buy their way out of this. Their prospect pipeline has been among the weakest in the league for years, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler had them ranked 30th out of 32 as recently as January.

Matt Poitras might become a solid middle-six player. Georgii Merkulov has NHL potential. But neither looks like a guy who can anchor a team for the next decade. And after Elias Lindholm’s underwhelming debut, it’s clear that simply signing a veteran doesn’t guarantee results.

Boston needs a homegrown fix.

The Bruins’ core is still young, they don’t have to rush this

There’s a narrative that the Bruins need to “win now” and that holding onto this pick would waste the primes of their stars. But that idea falls apart under a closer look.

David Pastrnak is 29. Charlie McAvoy is 27. Jeremy Swayman is 26. Even Hampus Lindholm, at 31, isn’t exactly on his last legs.

This isn’t an aging roster. It’s a roster that needs a future No. 1 center to push it to the next level. And the timeline works, if they draft smart.

Take Washington. The Capitals picked Ryan Leonard eighth overall in 2023. Less than two years later, he was already playing postseason minutes. That’s the path Boston should follow. Draft, develop, integrate. It works, and it’s far more sustainable than swinging for an aging forward who may or may not deliver.

Boston has other assets to trade, the No. 7 pick shouldn’t be one of them 

If Don Sweeney wants to explore trades, he’s got options. Boston owns two first-round picks in 2026 and could have another pair in 2027. They’ve also got four second-round picks over the next three years, including two this summer.

That’s plenty of draft capital to dangle in a deal.

But the No. 7 pick? That’s different. That’s your ticket to solving the most important position in hockey, for the next 10 to 15 years. Unless someone’s offering a top-line center in his prime with term, there’s no justifiable reason to move it.

The Bruins have spent years trying to patch their hole at center. For the first time in a long time, they don’t need to look outside the organization for a solution.

They just need to step up to the podium on draft night and make the right call.