Morning Skate: Bare cupboard

Hey, it’s Tuesday! And also the last day of August.

I’m not sure where the rest of August went, but it seems like that’s the way it goes every summer, doesn’t it?

Hopefully we’ve still got some nice stretches of summer weather left. I’m not quite ready for apple cider season yet.

Yesterday’s bit of Bruins news surrounded their farm system, or lack thereof, as The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranked the B’s farm system 29th in the NHL.

For reference, he had them at 23rd back in 2020, so...things didn’t improve.

I won’t cut-and-paste entire sections because it’s worth it to support paid sportswriting, but the gist of it is that he ranked Lysell as the Bruins’ #1 prospect, ahead of Jack Studnicka, and didn’t have great things to say about the rest of the crew.

Of course, everyone has opinions, and when it comes to prospects, the takes can be all over the board depending on who’s writing.

However, it’s fair to say that drafting and developing prospects haven’t been the Bruins’ strong suits over recent years.

Since 2015, the B’s have drafted just four guys who you could consider NHL regulars: Jake DeBrusk, Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon, and Charlie McAvoy.

You could expand it to six if you want to consider Jeremy Swayman and Dan Vladar NHL regulars, but I think it’s a little soon for that.

So...yeah. Not exactly a well stocked system, but we all knew that.

Today’s discussion topic

Are you concerned about the Bruins’ farm system, or is it one of those things you just have to deal with when “going for it” for a few years?

I kind of look at it as the price you pay for being a legitimately good team for a the better part of a decade, though you could argue other good teams have done a better job playing both sides.

Anyways, argue about prospects. Everyone loves that!