Bruins hire John Ferguson Jr., promote staff internally to fill Jim Benning's spot

The Bruins announced today that they:

• Hired John "Rask for Raycroft? Okay!" Ferguson, Jr. as Executive Director of Player Personnel
• Promoted Scott Bradley from Director of Player Personnel to Assistant General Manager.
• Promoted Ryan Nadeau from Director of Hockey Administration to Director of Hockey Operations/Analytics. He will still scout college hockey.

If you want the full history of each of these guys, the press release is here.

The two interesting parts here are obviously "Ferguson, really?" and "We have a director of Hockey Operations AND ANALYTICS now?"

Ferguson has helped put together a pretty damn good team in San Jose over the past few years. They haven't won the cup, but they always seem to run into the team that does early. It's almost enough to make you feel bad for them.

As for the director of Hockey Operations/Analytics, the press release says:

As Director of Hockey Operations/Analytics, Nadeau will continue scouting college prospects in the Eastern United States and Canada. Nadeau will utilize specialized statistical and numerical data/tools to supplement scouting efforts and evaluation, in addition to other hockey ops duties.

Many of the top teams in the league seem to have a guy who does this sort of thing. I'm happy that the Bruins are joining their ranks officially.

Interesting that they're adding a Director of Player Personnel the morning of the Draft.