Bruins GM Don Sweeney’s 5 Best Draft Picks

The 2025 NHL Draft is only a few weeks away, and with no apparent changes to the front office on the horizon, Don Sweeney, the Boston Bruins’ general manager, will be entering his 11th NHL Draft at the helm. Throughout his tenure, drafting has been a weak spot for the franchise. Now in the middle of a retool/rebuild, this has come under increasing scrutiny since the end of the season, and is something nobody in the franchise seems to really want to address or acknowledge.

For once, though, rather than focusing on Sweeney’s failures at drafting, I wanted to create a ranking of who I believe are the GM’s five best picks over the last decade. The criteria for this list include NHL performance, their ceiling as a player, and the impact they’ve had on the Bruins franchise.

5. Matthew Poitras

If all goes well, hopefully in a few years, Matthew Poitras will be much higher on the list. The 2022 second-round pick was a surprise when he made the roster for the 2023-24 season as a 19-year-old. This season was split between the NHL and the American Hockey League (AHL), but there is a lot of potential and interest surrounding the young center since he is probably the best center prospect/draft pick the team has had since the mid-2000s/early-2010s. There is no reason yet to believe that he can’t grow into a first or second line center. Whether or not the front office gives him that opportunity will be a storyline to monitor closely the next season or two, given Sweeney’s reluctance to give opportunities to young players. 

Poitras has 26 points in 66 career NHL games so far, and he’ll be someone to watch next season. The Bruins have great history with centers taken in the second round (both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci were selected there), and hopefully, in a few seasons, he’ll be looked at as a steal from the 2022 Draft. 

While he still has less than 100 NHL games under his belt, Poitras is given the edge over Trent Frederic or Mason Lohrei for the potential impact he could have and the promise he’s already demonstrated on the ice.

4. Jake DeBrusk

As sick as the front office may be about hearing it, Sweeney deserves a fair amount of flak for the 2015 NHL Draft, considering it has arguably one of the strongest first rounds ever and with three picks, they only hit on one of them. Still, while there are a lot of what-ifs and missed opportunities when reflecting on the first round of the 2015 Draft, Jake DeBrusk was a good pick and impactful in his seven seasons in Boston. 

It was certainly an up-and-down tenure, but when DeBrusk was on, he was ON. He played a big role in the team’s historical success in 2022-23. He’s a natural goal scorer, and while he has still yet to hit the 30 goal mark like many predicted he would coming out of the draft, he still hit over 20 in three seasons in Boston, and would have gotten over that mark in 2019-20 if COVID hadn’t ended the season prematurely (he had 19 in 65 games before the pause). 

The lows were certainly low, but overall, DeBrusk’s tenure in Boston should be remembered fondly, especially given how much the team missed his scoring abilities this past season. One of the front office’s biggest mistakes going into the 2024-25 season was losing him in free agency and not bringing in another goal scoring winger. Overall, he appeared in 465 games in Boston, registering 138 goals and 266 points.

3. Jeremy Swayman

He’s coming off a bad season, but Jeremy Swayman is not a bad goaltender. The 26-year-old was a fourth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, and truly a great find by Sweeney. He has a career 101-62-22 record with a .910 save percentage and 2.58 goals-against average (GAA). 2024-25 was a rough season between adjusting to a more full-time role after having a strong tandem and rotation in net for the beginning of his career, and having a pretty bad blue line in front of him. 

Jeremy Swayman has been the Boston Bruins’ No. 1 goalie this season, but he’s had his fair-share of struggles amid the journey to 100 career NHL victories. (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

There’s no indication though that Swayman won’t bounce back next season and continue to be the starting goaltender for the future. Securing a franchise goaltender is a huge deal, and can be a difference maker for a Stanley Cup run. The Bruins have been lucky in the 21st century to have drafted and developed a good string of goaltenders. Kudos to Sweeney there for continuing that tradition, and doing it with a fourth-round pick no less.

2. Brandon Carlo

While the first round is certainly not Sweeney’s friend, he does deserve some credit for his success in the second round of the draft. Poitras is already on this list, and Lohrei, a 2020 second-round pick, is an honorable mention, but Brandon Carlo is so far his best second-round pick. The stay-at-home defenseman may not have the flashiest of numbers, but he was a solid impact player for the Bruins in his nine seasons in Boston. 

The 2015 second-round pick is a plus-133 in 637 career NHL games. He is a safe player who quietly makes his team better. He’s responsible in his own zone, can play physically, and is good on the penalty kill. Anytime he was absent on the ice, it was noticeable, and while he had his struggles in 2024-25 like everyone else on the roster, he should still be remembered for having an overall positive impact on this franchise. 

His value also extends beyond what he did on the ice. Carlo was traded at the 2025 Trade Deadline to the Maple Leafs, bringing in Fraser Minten and a 2026 first-round pick. There is a lot to be excited about when it comes to Minten and who knows who that first-round pick could become. Carlo could have further ripple effects on the franchise with his trade return, cementing his second-place spot on this list.

1. Charlie McAvoy

This is no surprise to anyone who has watched the Bruins in the last eight seasons. Charlie McAvoy is an elite defenseman. He was a top-ranked defenseman going into the 2016 NHL Draft and in many ways fell right into Sweeney’s lap at pick 14 as an obvious selection, but truly, sometimes the best pick to make is the obvious one. 

Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

From his first NHL game in the 2017-18 season to now, McAvoy has been an impact player. He consistently plays the most minutes, has a plus-144 in the plus/minus column, and 300 points in 504 career NHL games. There’s a decent chance to believe he’ll be named the next captain of the franchise, and is a cornerstone that the roster will rebuild around as they seek to become competitive again.

McAvoy is just a plain good hockey player, and it has been a joy to watch him on this team for eight seasons. Thankfully, at 27 years old, there is more great hockey ahead of him in Boston.

Honorable Mentions

As already mentioned, the two biggest honorable mentions are Frederic and Lohrei. Frederic, a 2016 first-round pick, had struggles early in his NHL career, but over the course of the last three seasons, he has rounded into a solid, middle-six guy. He was traded to the Edmonton Oilers at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. Lohrei, a 2020 second-round pick, led the blue line in points this season and is the best young defenseman on the team’s roster at the moment. He is a bit of a liability in his own zone, but hopefully that will get worked out in his second full NHL season in 2025-26. 

While he never played for the Bruins, Ryan Lindgren was a second-round pick by Sweeney, and has had a solid career so far, appearing in 405 NHL games for the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche. Fabian Lysell also gets a shoutout here for his potential (if the front office ever actually gives him a legitimate shot in Boston). He looked NHL-ready in the final 11 games of the season in limited playing time, registering a goal and three points in that time.