The stealth selection: Jared Knight

In hindsight, shoulda seen it coming. Really. I mean, when you're a team that can't shoot a puck into the ocean from the end of a pier like the Boston Bruins were this past season, finishing dead-last in the NHL for offense, then picking up a legitimate sniper prospect is a top priority.

Right winger Jared Knight to the B's with the 32nd overall selection makes perfect sense, but the amateur scouting staff did a nice job of keeping the 36-goal scorer under the radar, even if Knight's agent, Murray Kuntz, countered their attempts to keep the buzz on him minimal with some brilliant marketing of his own. What Kuntz did, in terms of employing several videos and beating the bushes for his clients is exactly why such a vocation exists. Does anyone think that Knight and his family could have done it as effectively on his own?

Anyway, not to be forgotten in all of this is the fact that Knight did his part to earn an early second-round nomination despite not being the kind of archetypal player the B's look for. Listening to Peter Chiarelli and Wayne Smith talk after the draft, it was the shooting and scoring skills that are his best attributes (I hear he's an underrated playmaker and he's not averse to dropping the gloves, too).

He's the first-ever NHL draft pick from Battle Creek, Michigan, home of the Kellogg corporation and also known as "Cereal City" to those who know it best. His dad, Duane, is a 24-year veteran of the Battle Creek Police Department. The kid, by all accounts, is driven and responsible, even if he lacks the size and pure speed that the B's like to see in their prospects. Here's a terrific story on him, which will form a nice segue until we can see him in action next week and at the September training camp (which will be here before you know it).

Knight was flying under the radar in many aspects, but for the Bruins, having him in stealth mode was precisely what they wanted. Sure, they could have rolled the dice and risked him still being there at 45 had they passed on him at 32, but in the end, they obviously got their guy.