The Boston Bruins are extremely close to getting another first-round draft pick.
When the B’s dealt captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers at the NHL trade deadline in March, they got a conditional 2027 second-round pick in return. That selection would upgrade to a first-rounder if the defending champs reached the Eastern Conference Final and Marchand played in at least 50 percent of Florida’s playoff games.
One of those conditions was met Sunday night when the Panthers eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 6-1 win in Game 7 of their second-round series. The Panthers clinched a conference final berth for the third straight season as a result.
The last condition for the pick to upgrade to a first-rounder is Marchand playing in at least half of the Panthers’ postseason matchups. According to 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson, this condition applies to the entire Panthers playoff run, and not just the first two rounds.
Marchand has played in all 12 of the Panthers’ playoff games so far. Barring an unforeseen injury, he’s very likely to play every game, especially when you consider how well he’s playing (12 points in 12 games). The Panthers can only play in 14 more games (if they go to Game 7 in each of the last two rounds), which means their maximum number of potential games played is 26.
So if Marchand plays in Game 1 of the Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, he’ll get to 13 games played and meet the 50 percent condition.
The Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy has reported that the 2027 first-rounder owed to the Bruins (assuming all conditions are met) is top-10 protected, so if the pick does fall in the top 10, it would convey as an unprotected 2028 first-round pick.
If the Bruins do get this first-round pick from the Panthers, it would give them five picks in Round 1 over the next three drafts.
It remains to be seen whether the Bruins will keep all of these first-round picks. The B’s do have one of the league’s worst prospect pools, but if they want to compete right now, it might make sense to package some picks to try to acquire a star player.
Read the full article here