Patience
Bruins wait, get 2 defensemen in draft
Posted: Saturday June 27, 1998 09:13 PM
BUFFALO, New York (AP) -- It was a slow day Saturday for the Boston Bruins but they finally got defensemen Jonathan Girard and Bobby Allen in the NHL Entry Draft.
As the stars were swept up -- Vincent Lecavalier by the Tampa Bay Lightning and David Legwand by the expansion Nashville Predators -- the Bruins officials just sat and waited.
Boston went into the draft with no first round picks because they dealt them to Colorado in December 1996 in exchange for Landon Wilson and Anders Myrvold. That left them with two second-rounders as their first chance to select new talent.
The Bruins picked 48th and 52nd overall, despite earlier talk that the front office might trade up to better picks. Nothing materialized and Assistant General Manager Mike O'Connell had to sit through 47 picks before it was his turn.
The Bruins took Girard from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as their first choice.
Allen, who just finished his freshman year at Boston College, was their second. He was picked 52nd overall. The Hull, Massachusetts, native made the Hockey East All-Rookie team and was the second highest scoring defenseman at BC last season with seven goals and 21 assists.
The Bruins chose Peter Nordstrom in the third round.
Last year Boston grabbed the much-hyped Joe Thornton with the first overall choice, and snatched up Sergei Samsonov with another first round pick. Samsonov went on to be named Rookie of
the Year, but Thornton struggled.
Other New Englanders who were picked in the first three rounds of the draft included center Steve Moore of Harvard, who goes to Colorado; defenseman Joe DiPrenta of Boston University, who was picked up by the Florida Panthers; and Mike Pandolfo of St. Sebastian's High School in Needham, Massachusetts, who was nabbed by the Buffalo Sabres.
Left wing Chris Bala of Harvard was picked by the Ottawa Senators. Left wing Geoff Koch, from Exeter, New Hampshire, who attends Michigan, was picked by Nashville; and right wing Brian Gionta of BC heads to the New Jersey Devils.
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