The Boston Bruins have a checkered history when it comes to sustained success in the NHL Entry Draft, but 2006 is the most productive lottery class the team has ever had.
Held in Vancouver, the Carolina Hurricanes had just won the first Stanley Cup after the lockout canceled the 2004-05 NHL season. The B’s were picking fifth by virtue of nearly bottoming-out after losing key players in their primes to free agency like Brian Rolston, Mike Knuble, Sergei Gonchar and Michael Nylander. What the club thought would be a surplus of talent available after the lockout imposed a salary cap, failed to be the case when the NHLPA agreed to rollback player salaries as part of the new CBA.
As a result, the Bruins stumbled in the post-lockout NHL.  Joe Thornton’s trade to San Jose in late Nov. signaled a seismic shift for the team. Things were far from settled: former GM Mike O’Connell (Cohasset, Mass.) was let go in early spring, and his replacement, Peter Chiarelli, was still employed by the Ottawa Senators as assistant GM and obligated to them until after the draft and free agency.
The Bruins, led by interim GM and Melrose, Mass. native Jeff Gorton and head amateur scout Scott Bradley, faced a significant crossroads, and had to get it right. Little did anyone realize it at the time, but one weekend in Vancouver would set the tone and establish conditions for the organization's total turnaround, capped by an eventual championship five years later.
This is the story of that franchise-altering Bruins draft class.
Phil Kessel, RW — 5th overall
The blazing-fast University of Minnesota freshman was not the top player on Boston’s draft board. The guy Boston reportedly wanted was Swedish center Nicklas Backstrom, but the Washington Capitals were one spot ahead of the B’s and took the former NHL All-Star and key piece to the 2018 Stanley Cup championship squad with the fourth overall pick. Kessel went next to Boston.
After a tough rookie season adjustment in 2006-07, which included beating cancer, Kessel played two more years in Boston. He topped out with a 36-goal, 60-point campaign in his third and final entry-level contract season, but asked out instead of re-signing and got his wish to be traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs before 2009-10. The B’s grabbed a trio of high draft picks in the deal, landing two impact NHLers in Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton.
11 years later, however, both players are gone without much to show for them. Seguin, however, was a part of the 2011 Stanley Cup team in Boston, and came through in the clutch early in the Eastern Conference final series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
New England Hockey Journal 2006 Grade: A+ ; To get a player of Kessel’s caliber and talent at five is tremendous value.- July 2006
New England Hockey Journal 2021 Grade: A; Kessel leads the class in games played with 1,122 and is second to Backstrom in scoring with 904 career points. The B’s got good value for him via trade with Toronto. After going on to win a pair of Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh his 391 goals leads all players drafted in ’06. The Bruins got it right, even if Kessel did not go on to have the longevity the club envisioned for him.
Milan Lucic, LW — 50th overall
The rugged left wing who went on to become one of the era’s most feared power forwards, believed going in that he would be drafted by the Los Angeles Kings.
They were the club that had spent the most time on him, and according to an Ottawa Citizen report a few years back, the Kings wanted him. Unbeknownst to them, another team with a pair of second-rounders desired Lucic.
New GM Dean Lombardi (Holyoke, Mass.) hired by the Kings before the draft, wasn’t sure the team needed another forward in the second round after drafting goalie Jonathan Bernier and forward Trevor Lewis in the opening round at 11th and 17th respectively. He pressed his scouts to identify the best defenseman on the Kings’ board as their next pick at 48th overall approached.
In the end, the Kings chose Malden, Mass. native Joey Ryan, opening the door for the Bruins to grab Lucic two picks later.
"I remember waking up that morning knowing what teams were interested, but didn't know where I was going to go," Lucic told NHL.com’s Mike Morreale in a 2013 article. "The teams I thought were most interested were Los Angeles and Nashville.
"To be perfectly honest, what I remember most is the Kings having the 48th pick and they took a kid named Joey Ryan in the spot where I thought I would go. When I didn't go, I didn't really pay attention after that, and then, all of a sudden, my parents and grandparents heard my name called. After all that … I never even heard my name."
Taken with Edmonton's selection acquired in the trade that made Sergei Samsonov an Oiler, Lucic became the Memorial Cup MVP a year later. He made the Bruins at age 19 for the 2007-08 season, and was an instant fan favorite in Boston. He went on to beat his hometown Vancouver Canucks for the Stanley Cup, in the very place he had been drafted five years earlier.
"He is the ultimate teammate," former Bruins defenseman Torey Krug told New England Hockey Journal. "He feels the pulse of the room and what a team needs on any given night- a guy who did whatever it took to be successful. He has one of the best scoring touches around the net that I've seen. I was frequently on the ice with him early in my career and we connected for a lot of goals. I felt pretty safe out there when he was on our team, but that goes without saying."
New England Hockey Journal 2006 Grade: B+; Some say he was a reach, but everyone agrees he has tremendous potential. If he realizes it, he could become a poor man’s Rick Tocchet for the B’s.- July 2006
New England Hockey Journal 2021 Grade: A; Lucic was one of Boston’s core players from 2008-15, and played his most productive years with the Bruins, including his lone 30-goal campaign. Although he’s lost some of his luster after disappointing stops in Edmonton and Calgary, he was a huge part of the B’s success in his prime.
Brad Marchand, LW — 71st overall
The team traded up a few spots in the third round to get Marchand, and it has become one of the best draft moves in franchise history,
At the time, Marchand was considered a first-round talent, but some alleged indiscipline issues on- and off the ice hurt him at the draft. Despite his ability, he played for three different teams in juniors, and when he signed with the Bruins in 2008, his path to the NHL was not a sure thing.
Marchand was a playoff hero for the B’s with a tremendous Stanley Cup final series performance against the Canucks. However, his extended post-playoff celebration and subsequent on-ice antics as an agitator in his first few NHL seasons raised eyebrows around the NHL and landed him in some hot water.
However, the now 33-year-old has matured and developed into a bona fide NHL superstar and Boston’s MVP. He’s cut down on the penalties/suspensions, while moving into fifth place (715) behind Backstrom, Kessel, Claude Giroux and Jonathan Toews. Marchand’s maturity and complete game has elevated him into a perennial all-star and core performer when it looked like his emotions might prevent that status early on.
"The evolution of his on-ice game is unlike something I have seen," Krug said. "There's never a puck battle he is out of because he competes like no one else. That's a result of the way he practices. It's a direct correlation to his success in becoming a 100-point player. There aren't many guys I would look to pass to before him."
New England Hockey Journal 2006 Grade: B; Small, but speedy. He has the skill and moxie to be the right kind of fit in the new NHL.- July 2006
New England Hockey Journal 2021 Grade: A+; Nobody has done it better in Boston over the past several seasons than Marchand has. He’s matured into a league superstar and is one of the most respected teammates on the Boston roster for his performance and off-ice connections to fans and the community.
Bonus round: Tuukka Rask was acquired on the draft’s first day in an even trade for Andrew Raycroft. That deal boosted the draft over the top in terms of the kind of impact it set the Bruins up for. Taken one spot before the B’s could get him a year earlier, Rask has gone on to become the franchise’s all-time wins leader in both regular season and playoffs. A Stanley Cup as a starter has eluded him, and Rask is the team’s most polarizing player, but there is no question that the trade gave the Bruins one of the most lopsided returns of all time.
The misses: Defensemen Yuri Alexandrov (37th), Andrew Bodnarchuk (128th) and forward Levi Nelson (158th) gave the Bruins just five NHL games.
New England Hockey Journal 2006 overall grade: A+; The draft alone was an A for the Bruins based on who they got where, but throwing in the Rask acquisition boosts the grade to the max.
New England Hockey Journal 2021 overall grade: A+; The Bruins got maximum value and won a Stanley Cup in 2011, with two more trips to the final since. The 2006 draft was just the beginning, as the team added free agents Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard a week later.
Those 10 days changed the direction of a franchise and is still paying dividends 15 years later.
