Bruins 2nd-round pick locked in after Hurricanes playoff exit

The Boston Bruins had to watch the Eastern Conference Finals for reasons beyond Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers. They also have a draft pick that depended on how the Carolina Hurricanes finished.

Now that Marchand and the Panthers dispatched of the Hurricanes to move on to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year, the B's are locked in to the 61st overall pick in the second round of the 2025 NHL Draft. The selection was originally the property of Carolina, who packaged it to acquire Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche, who later spun the same pick off to get Charlie Coyle from the Bruins.

The Hurricanes "won" the tiebreaker to finish in spots 29 and 61, after finishing the regular season with a worse point percentage than the fellow conference final loser Dallas Stars. So, their elimination has settled the Bruins' first three picks in the 2025 draft.

Boston will select seventh, 51st, and 61st overall in the first two rounds. Pick No. 51 was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers as part of the deal for forward Trent Frederic. The pick was originally the property of the St. Louis Blues, who had sent the pick to Edmonton as offer sheet compensation for former restricted free-agent defenseman Philip Broberg. (PuckPedia has an even more detailed description of everyone's draft picks.)

^{L-R: Jordan Staal, Brad Marchand}

The Bruins may find themselves in a Blues-like situation this offseason, as they explore the RFA market for potential roster additions. They will need to trade their own picks in the 2026 draft to accomplish that. They currently have all their own selections for that year.

The Bruins' own 2025 second-round pick landed at 37th, but that selection is now the property of the Washington Capitals. The Bruins sent that pick to D.C. back in 2023, when they made a deadline deal for forward Garnet Hathaway and defenseman Dmitry Orlov.

As for the Marchand/Panthers situation, the pick that the Bruins acquired for their former captain at the trade deadline officially became a first-round pick after Game 1 of the conference finals. The pick is top-10 protected for 2027, but it's exceedingly unlikely that the Panthers would approach the draft lottery a year from now.

Bruins GM Don Sweeney has a lot on his plate this offseason, with the 2025 draft arguably at the top of the list. Sweeney may be signed through the next three seasons, but his long-term future in Boston could hinge on the performance of the 2025 draft class in that timeframe.