The Boston Bruins decided to fire director of amateur scouting Wayne Smith sometime following the 2013 NHL Draft, CSNNE.com reports.
GM Peter Chiarelli provided the Hockey News’ Ken Campbell with a vague explanation for why he was canned.
“We wanted to freshen up our amateur scouting and shift things a little bit and we felt this was the way to do it,” Chiarelli said. “Wayne has done a good job and I’ll give him a good reference, but we wanted to inject some new life.”
Campbell finds the change a little strange.
It seems rather odd, given that Chiarelli admits that Smith is his good friend and is a very good scout. Their prospect list was solid, ranking them 12th among NHL organizations in THN’s Future Watch edition in 2013.
Then again, when you look at the list of players the Bruins have drafted since Smith took over the scouting department in 2007, it’s clear that the Bruins’ impressive work has mainly come from trades and free agent moves.
As Hockey Prospectus’ Corey Pronman points out, Tyler Seguin is the only NHL regular the team drafted from 2007-2010. It’s possible that more recent drafts could produce better results with the likes of Dougie Hamilton and Malcolm Subban in the mix, but first-rounders like Jordan Caron and Zach Hamill haven’t exactly worked out.
Either way, parting with Smith is another example of a Bruins franchise that is adapting on the fly, even amid substantial bigger picture success.