Bruins select unique forward in first round (2024)

The Bruins’ return to the first round netted Boston one of the biggest players in the draft.

The Bruins selected center Dean Letourneau, a right-shot forward who is listed at 6-foot-7, 210 pounds, at the No. 25 spot overall.

Letourneau played last year at St. Andrews College, a Canadian prep school instead of junior hockey in 2023-24 which makes him harder to evaluate. But he had 127 points (61 goals, 66 assists) in 56 games. Letourneau originally wasn’t even going to play in college until 2025-26. But the Boston College commit is now expected to forgo his plan to play for Sioux Falls of the USHL and join the Eagles a year sooner than originally planned.

Letourneau’s speed at his size had scouts intrigued. It’s a high-risk, high-upside pick for the Bruins.

Central Scouting had Letourneau 23rd among North American skaters, but director Dan Marr admitted to NHL.com he was hard to rank.

“Not only is it difficult for our group, it’s difficult for the 32 clubs as well,” Marr said. “We saw him play last year and we’d seen St. Andrew’s quite a bit so all our full-time scouts saw him play last year, we saw him play this year, and we got a look at him playing two games with Sioux Falls (United States Hockey League) during the Christmas break.

“We’ve seen this before where high school and prep school players go and play a couple games in the USHL and they look a little lost. So there you can get a little glimpse of a comparison. But what we were pleased to see was that Letourneau with Sioux Falls, he was really on top of the play, he was reading the play, he was moving, he was in good position. ... Defensively he backchecked with a purpose, he was in the right place at the right time, on top of the play. He’s got size, he can skate, he’s got pretty good hockey sense. The numbers, they’re a little off the charts and you can’t compare apples to oranges ... all we know is he knows how to get open and get those scoring chances.”

The Athletic’s Corey Pronmon called him one of the most unusual players in the draft. He wrote:

“Letourneau was a dominant player at the prep level this season and one of the very best pro prospects to come through St. Andrew’s College. His toolkit is rather unique. He skates very well for 6-foot-6. That he has a legit offensive touch to go with his feet is what makes him so appealing for his pro projection. He can dangle defenders at full flight and create a lot of scoring chances. Letourneau isn’t a high-energy compete and some scouts question his effort at times, but he gets to the middle well enough and isn’t afraid of using his body. The debate on Letourneau will be how real his offense is. The athlete is obvious, but is he actually NHL smart or does he have NHL scoring ability? It’s so hard to pinpoint at the low level of competition he faced all season. He could be Tage Thompson, but he could be Joe Colborne or Riley Tufte. I think he ends somewhere in the middle.”

NHL Central Scouting’s Nick Smith said Letourneau’s upside was high.

“I think it’s hard to find a player with his size and length to have soft hands and good feet,” Smith said. “He can make plays with sense and vision with a scoring touch around the net. He still has a ton of filling out to do as well.”

Utah traded with Colorado to get ahead of the Bruins at No. 24 to take Cole Beaudoin. ESPN speculated on the draft broadcast that Boston might have been likely to take him.

He’s the Bruins’ first pick in the first round since they took Fabian Lysell in 2021. Don Sweeney has traded his No. 1 pick every year since, including this year, but they got it back.

The 25th pick originally belonged to the Bruins, who traded it to Detroit at the 2023 deadline as part of the deal for Tyler Bertuzzi. The Red Wings sent it to Ottawa for Alex DeBrincat. The Senators sent it back to Boston with forward Mark Kastelic and goalie Joonas Korpisalo for Linus Ullmark.