Waffle Watch: 2011 Boston Bruins draft pick update; 20 Dec.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a tough week in their Western Canada road swing, getting manhandled by Calgary and Vancouver.

Things don't get any easier with white-hot Ondrej Pavelec (sporting a .944 save percentage right now) and the surging Atlanta Thrashers coming to town tonight. Looks like J.S. Giguere might be done for the season, which puts a lot of pressure on Johan "the Monster" Gustavsson. He's a good goalie with some real talent, but he still lacks big league experience and this team isn't going to score him many goals. The immense pressure he'll be under every night not to allow more than 1 goal will be a huge test for the immensely talented Swede. Might we see a move for free agent veteran Evgeni Nabokov?

Again, goaltending and defense isn't as big a problem as the lack of offense is. Even if they do get Nabokov, the Leafs still need to find a way to score goals more than preventing them.

Tough test tonight for the fragile Leafs-- as his agent, Allan Walsh likes to say, Altlanta's netminder is "Pavelectric" and when you're getting hat tricks from Eric Boulton, then you know your offense is firing on all cylinders. This Thrashers team is going to give the Washington Capitals a run for their money in the Southeast Division.

Here's the draft pick update if the season ended today. The Leafs are actually one point behind their pace from last season at the same time, but the poor performances by the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils, and inability of the teams around the Leafs to put any distance between them in the standings, makes the draft watch (or is it the Waffle Watch?) this season a much more iffy proposition. Still, this draft is four deep (Couturier, Larsson, Landeskog Nugent-Hopkins), so if the Leafs can't keep up, the B's have got a very good chance to land another high-end player for the second consecutive season.

Time to head to the store for more Eggos, perhaps?

1st Round

3rd overall- Toronto (28 points; 12-16-4)- Completes Phil Kessel trade.
16th overall- Boston (38 points; 17-10-4)


2nd Round

39th overall- Minnesota (32 points;14-13-4)- Completes Chuck Kobasew trade.

46th overall- Boston


3rd Round

73rd overall- Phoenix (37 points; 15-9-7) - Completes Derek Morris trade.

Boston pick traded to Florida; Completes Nathan Horton deal

4th Round

106th overall- Boston

5th Round

136th overall- Boston

6th Round

166th overall- Boston

7th Round

184th overall- Florida (conditional)- Jeff LoVecchio, Jordan Knackstedt to Panthers for Sean Zimmerman, cond. 7th

Boston pick traded to Chicago (Zach Trotman)