BHN Puck Links: Boston Bruins Bracing For East’s Young Talent

There’s going to be an amazing amount of young talent in the Boston Bruins division this season with the realignment due to COVID-19.

As pointed out by NBC Sports on their twitter account, each of the last four No. 1 overall picks in the NHL will reside in the East Division with Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Rasmus Dahlin and Alexis Lafreniere playing respectively for the New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers.

Which of the last four No. 1 picks will have the biggest 2021 season?! 🏒 pic.twitter.com/mw2ubASDS7

— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) January 2, 2021

It underscores how much emerging franchise talent resides with the new-look East Division to go along with the established stars like Alex Ovechkin, David Pastrnak, Sidney Crosby, Jack Eichel, Evgeni Malkin, Patrice Bergeron, Ivan Provorov, Mika Zibanejad and Brad Marchand.

It’s not going to be an easy road for the Black and Gold this season, but it should be a lot of fun for hockey fans to watch. There’s something to be said for that in a compacted 2021 NHL season where so much of what’s normal is forcibly getting tossed out the window.

Now on to the puck links:

*Florida Panthers goalie Chris Driedger is going with a Mandalorian-themed mask for this season and it’s looking pretty awesome. (Florida Hockey Now)

*Can you believe that it took this long in Wayne Gretzky’s life to finally get a hole-in-one on the golf course?

Gretzky hit his FIRST hole-in-one 👏🥺

(📸: @janetgretzky) pic.twitter.com/MnJAhLED2f

— Hockey Night in Canada (@hockeynight) January 3, 2021

*Speaking of the Great One, here’s a fun interview with former Bruins goaltender Pete Peeters about the day that Wayne Gretzky dropped five goals on him. A day in goaltending infamy, as they say. (CBC)

*Good get for the Vancouver Canucks, who have announced that defenseman Travis Hamonic will be reporting to Canucks camp on a PTO tryout agreement. (RotoWorld)

*Partner-in-crime Jimmy Murphy says that the Boston Bruins have already expressed interest in Pierre-Luc Dubois if the Columbus Blue Jackets somehow make him available. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Bruins wouldn’t be able to put together the best package for him based on the wide interest, but at least they’re trying. (Boston Hockey Now)

*John Marino nets a six-year contract from the Pittsburgh Penguins just as things are winding up for Penguins training camp. Good value on a good, young defenseman for the long term. (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)

*For something completely different: Something doesn’t feel right about the IRS going after Prince after he’s already been gone for years. (AP)