Mathew Barzal vs. Brock Boeser

My vote goes to Barzal. Both him and Boeser are equally gifted on offence. Boeser being more a shooter, Barzal more playermaker. I tend to give an edge to playmakers since they usually make everyone around them better.

And Barzal is a center so there’s that too

All I'm going to say is that Boston passed on both of these guys. Not once. Not twice. But three times. In a row.

As a Bruins fan, I really hope Zboril and Senyshyn turn into something. DeBrusk seems like a player but if those two bust and Barzal was around....yeeeeesh.....

Could've told you on draft day that Boston messed up and I know how that feels.

On draft day, the big thing was them passing on Barzal. Zboril was a good pick at the time, but looks really bad now. Senyshyn was way off the board, and Debrusk was maybe taken a little earlier than expected, but nothing completely unreasonable. That is, until you look at some names taken right behind them. Barzal, Boeser, JEE, Chabot, Samsonov, White, Aho, etc.

As an Isles fan i have to go with Barzal,

Oh ya the hindsight 20-20 guys come out.....

Not even hindsight. I was watching the draft and questioning the Boston picks atm they happened.

everyone who doesn't blindly adore the ruins did and does

Literally, everyone. I bet Bruins fans hadn't heard of Debrusk or Senyshyn on draft day

Not too many years ago, Barzel would have been (was) downgraded because of his size. Now with new rules, meaning players can't be impeded by sticks so much, the very shifty Barzel is what teams desire.

Barzal is really good however was very underrated for a period of time.

I'm actually gonna have to go with Boeser. That's not a knock at Barzal, he is playing great and is a hell of a player. But he's playing on a pretty good team in NY. Vancouver's entire offense is being built of Boeser.

Love how it always comes back to Boston passing on him 3 times, but no one mentions the following teams pass on him as well....

Arizona
Toronto
Carolina
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Columbus
San Jose
Colorado
Florida
Dallas

As a B's fans I still don't hate our picks. There's something that the scouting team didn't like about Barzal and they passed on him. Do I worry about it? Nope, because at the end of the day he's still not w/ Boston. Kid could go on to be a future HOFer, who knows. Maybe he shows flashes his rookie year and then falls off the map, we don't know. I will say just because he's played well for the Islanders doesn't mean he'd be putting up the same performance in Boston. The strategy isn't the same, the line-mates are different, his usage would be different. There are numerous factors that can change his production if Barzal were to be with a different team.

Marner, Hanifin, Werenski and Rantanen are all quality players and with the exception of the latter teams would've gone off the board badly.

you are still trying to build the facts around your narrative. if you're going down that roat that you can't possibly know what's going to happen, you'd have to apply this to everything.

Montreal isnt on that list

I think you're right, you would have to. Sure we can sit here 2,3,5,10 years later and say who should have picked who and why this team made a terrible choice....at the end of the day though, teams are making decisions based on the information they have and a little bit of luck. Its kind of funny but with fans you take BPA and you roasted if a guy behind your pick plays well....you don't go BPA and the player turns out to be good and you still get roasted lol.

Philadelphia selected Ivan Provorov...so yea, say we passed on Matt Barzal, but in hindsight, he wouldn't be taken in the top 10 of any re-draft

When there's a damn near consensus best player available, and then they have three straight picks and pass on him three times, yeah, there's a lot of room for scrutiny there.

But why? Why is a teaming going to get scrutinized for a guy having (so far) one good year. People make it seem like they passed on the greatest player ever to lace em up and it was a no-brainer pick. We weren't in the interviews, we don't sit in on those meetings where teams talk about the types of players they want to target moving forward. Boston simply felt that at the time Barzal wasn't going to work in their system or that they had larger needs. Why stress about a draft pick from 2 years ago, when we wont know for another 2-3 years how all the picks panned out?

I get it, everyone has their own thing that makes them happy and if for some that's scrutinizing a team they're not a fan of because of a pick they didn't make....so be it. With the way they've been drafting since Sweeney took over though, I'm confident that they're taking the players that they feel fits the organization, system and style of play best.

I also don't put to much stock in the "consensus BPA" as these picks are just as likely to bust as become stars. There's just so many factors that can change the outcome of a players development. I am curious though, if this guy was such a stud, why was he available when Boston was up anyways?

When you take a guy that was off the board over Barzal, you messed up.

While Barzal has played much better than we could have expected out of him so far, he should have gone a handful of slots higher than he did. Gurianov was picked too high at the time, but everybody else seemed about right to that point. Remember, this draft was tabbed as having potential to be even better than the '03 class going in.

Had Boston passed on him once, nobody would really say anything. But they passed on him three times in a row, one of them being a pick they could've gotten in round 2 (Senyshyn).

I'll have to see if I can find it, but a report came out that a team was going to take Seny in the 1st round if he was there. I want to say DET or MTL for some reason. Maybe if I get some extra time I'll see if I can find the article again.

At the end of the day though, Boston was never intending to make all 3 selections, they were trying to move up for Hanifin and it didn't work out. Still not mad about the picks we made and while its possible that Barzal turns out to be a better player than all 3 of the B's picks, its still a team sport and I like the tools the 3 guys we took can bring to the table. I will say though, Barzal has tremendous contorted speed and a crazy set of hands. If he continues to progress he can be a nice piece for the Islanders moving forward.