It’s a rare thing for a player to jump immediately to the NHL after being drafted, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that only two of the players selected at the 2014 draft are currently playing at hockey’s highest level. Nor should it be surprising that first overall pick Aaron Ekblad is one of the two.
What’s really shocking is that the other is David Pastrnak, a 167-pound Czech who went 25th overall to the Boston Bruins. Even more shocking is that he’s flourishing.
There’s a school of thought that the best approach to prospects is patience; that rushing them to the NHL can produce adverse results. It’s something I believe in, and more significantly, it’s a philosophy of which Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland has spent most of the last two decades demonstrating the wisdom. Holland explained his approach to author Jason Farris for the book Behind the Moves:
I spent nine years in the American Hockey League… Hartford would bring all these kids in—and the organizations that I was with in Detroit and Hartford, they were struggling organization ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
David Pastrnak Looks Like a Draft-Day Steal for the Boston Bruins
March 20th, 2015 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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