Bruins swallow hard, pick Subban's brother in draft
The Bruins found themselves in a different draft situation than they were in the last two years.
No more high picks coming for Phil Kessel.
That's right, the trade that kept on giving to the B's finally lapsed, and the club found itself in the No. 24 hole in the draft, where it provided an interesting twist to the first round by drafting the younger brother of a Boston villain.
More on that later -- first, the Kessel deal that is no longer giving. The Bruins took Tyler Sequin with the No. 2 pick in the 2010 draft and also tabbed forward Jared Knight with the 32nd pick. Then, in 2011, the B's grabbed defenseman Dougie Hamilton with the No. 9 selection, and they project Hamilton to be a top defenseman, one who is on pace to break training camp with the team for the 2012-13 season.
On to the 2012 top draft pick: The Bruins went with 18-year-old goalie Malcolm Subban, the kid brother of Montreal's P.K., probably the most hated B's opponent.
"The rivalry's just about to begin," the younger Subban said with a smile. "I don't know if he's going to like me too much. To be honest, I never really liked him too much."
Malcolm Subban didn't start playing in goal until he was 12 but is regarded as a prime NHL prospect.
"I'd say he's a hybrid," said general manager Peter Chiarelli, whose move can be seen as a down-the-road effect of Tim Thomas leaving the team. "Very athletic. Probably technically, he needs a little bit of work. Very, very competitive. Searches for pucks in traffic. He's big and strong. His lateral speed is tremendous."
Chiarelli said on the night of the draft's first round that Thomas, who says he won't play this season, waived the no-movement contract clause that would have ended July 1 anyway. That, in theory, would allow the club to deal him to a team that needs the $5 million salary cap hit to reach the salary floor.
"At the very least he's being cooperative in that sense," Chiarelli said. "I've had a couple of teams, more than a couple (contact me). I've had a category of teams that are inquiring about acquiring him for the cap floor. And I've had a category of teams who inquired about, is he coming back?
"If you look at it, that would be a $5 million cap hit that a team doesn't have to pay. So, yes, on that basis, I think there would be interest. The thing is, there's no rush right now to get (cap-compliant) yet. There's no urgency. But if there was more than one team competing, I'd have to look at it."
He said he hadn't received definitive word from Thomas that he won't be playing but added, "It's probably 95 percent."
Meanwhile, coach Claude Julien said he's ready to move on without Thomas.
"Well ... Tim has made his decision and as a coach my philosophy doesn't change, and it's about dealing with the players that you have in front of you," Julien said. "We all know that Tuukka (Rask) is a very capable goaltender. He's proven it time after time. We got an opportunity to see (Anton) Khudobin in action in Ottawa one of the last games of the season, and he handled that game extremely well -- he was phenomenal.
"So we still feel confident that we have some great goaltenders. Tim has been a great goaltender for us, and what he's done will certainly never be forgotten, but at the same time it's important for me to take the news and move forward with it. I'm looking forward to working with some of these other goaltenders."
