Trent Frederic lines up to take a faceoff with the USNTDP. Photo credit: Tom Sorensen, USNTDP
After the solid selection of Charlie McAvoy with the 14th pick, Don Sweeney and his scouts did what everyone expected them to: they made a controversial (to put it kindly) draft pick. Trent Frederic was a third-line grinder with the US National Team Development Program (USNTDP), and most rankings had him going in the middle of the second round, with some pundits rating him as an early third-rounder.
Every scouting report I could find said that his ceiling as an NHL player was as a bottom-six grinder. What's the point of taking a third-liner with a first-round pick? On purpose? Yes, you read right. The Bruins didn't think that Trent Frederic had some untapped potential to become a potent sniper at the highest level. They knew that he would most likely be a bottom-six player, and they took him anyways. That's not to say that a team doesn't need bottom-six players, or even that the Bruins couldn't use a decent player on their third or fourth line. But this pick reveals deeper problems in the way that the Bruins management. For those too lazy to click the link above, here is they key quote from Keith Gretzky, the Bruins' director of amateur scouting, as told to Steve Conroy in this article.
Every scouting report I could find said that his ceiling as an NHL player was as a bottom-six grinder. What's the point of taking a third-liner with a first-round pick? On purpose? Yes, you read right. The Bruins didn't think that Trent Frederic had some untapped potential to become a potent sniper at the highest level. They knew that he would most likely be a bottom-six player, and they took him anyways. That's not to say that a team doesn't need bottom-six players, or even that the Bruins couldn't use a decent player on their third or fourth line. But this pick reveals deeper problems in the way that the Bruins management. For those too lazy to click the link above, here is they key quote from Keith Gretzky, the Bruins' director of amateur scouting, as told to Steve Conroy in this article.