The NHL Draft begins Friday, and the Bruins have the second pick (the Oilers hold the number one pick). According to the experts, there are two players that are at the top of the draft boards: winger Taylor Hall and center Tyler Seguin.
The Bruins are probably in a need for a winger, so it would make sense that Bruins fans might want Hall, However, in Seguin you have a player that has had similar statistics to Hall and his rated basically his equal. So does it really matter who the Bruins nab with the second pick?
On one hand, you have Taylor Hall, who is 6-foot, from Calgary and is 18-years old. Last year he played for the Windsor Spitfires. In 59 games, he scored 40 goals and tallied 66 assists (106 points). He led his club to their second consecutive Memorial Cup, and he claimed his second consecutive tournament MVP.
On the other hand, you have Tyler Seguin who is 6-1, and from Brampton, Ontario. Last year, he played for the Plymouth Whalers, and in 63 games he scored 48 goals and netted 106 points, earning him the Eddie Powers Memorial trophy.
Are you splitting hairs with these two players? Well, Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star seems to think so.
But how close are they? Consider the meeting of NHL nine scouts over seven days in April when the league’s Central Scouting Bureau was putting together its final list.
“Each day I opened our meeting by asking our guys: ‘Who would you take if you’re a general manager? Would you take Tyler Seguin or Taylor Hall?” recalled E.J. McGuire, the director of scouting and chair of those meetings. “Each day the vote was 5-4. Each day it was for a different guy.
“That’s my way of saying they’re that close. And they still are.”
So if you are a fan of the Bruins, does it really matter if it's Seguin or Hall that falls to them at the No. 2 pick? When the scouts are telling you it is that close, I think the Bruins really can't go wrong either way.