Keith Gretzky Named Bruins' Director of Amateur Scouting

On Wednesday, the Boston Bruins named Keith Gretzky (brother of the 2nd best hockey player ever) Director of Amateur Scouting, confirming the report of Fluto Shinzawa a little over a week ago. Formerly Gretzky had served as an Ontario-based amateur scout for the Bruins.

Although the Bruins are enjoying a nice run among the league's elite teams, they're doing it with a roster put more together by trades and signings than home grown talent. In fact, Dougie Hamilton, Tyler Seguin and Jordan Caron were the only Bruins drafted by the team in the past five years to play more than 10 games last season. And in the case of Hamilton and Seguin, they were slam dunk, can't miss picks.

Part of that is because the Bruins have built a solid core through acquisitions and spots are harder to come by than they would be for a weaker team. But it's also partly because there's just been no one who's been able to work their way in.

Before coming to Boston, Gretzky served as Director of Amateur Scouting for the Phoenix Coyotes where his staff was known to pick the occasional European player here or there, notably Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Mikkel Boedker. His fingerprints are all over the most recent Bruins draft where they took three European players, including with their first two picks.

Everything I've been hearing about Gretzky has been positive and he even likes advanced stats! It doesn't hurt that his staff will also include a true legend, either.

If you're interested in learning a little more on him, here's a Q&A he did earlier this month at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.