Scituate native Ryan Donato is most likely going to play for the Bruins in the next few years.
Donato was a second round pick in the 2014 NHL draft. It was an interesting pick. His father, Ted, who is the head coach at Harvard, played for the Bruins for quite some time. He was at Dexter School at the time. He was committed to Harvard, an ECAC school, to play for his dad. The pick got criticism (not from me, but others). Now, however, it appears as though the Bruins made a pretty good move here, according to the Boston Herald.
Donato was a standout at school last year which was his sophomore year. He scored 21 goals and had 19 assists (so 40 points) and a plus 19 rating in 36 games playing for his dad. Pretty good. Oh, and he got some work in as a winger in addition to his regular center duty.
Let’s be honest: there’s always this sort of risk when it comes to drafting Ivy Leaguers. Sure, the consensus is Donato is going to help the Bruins win when he comes around, but he is working toward a degree at one of the most prestigious schools in the world and has the opportunity to play for a family member. Would you really expect him to walk away from that knowing that many guys have to get a day job when their career is over anyways?
Another semi-relevant point is MLB teams don’t tend to draft guys from Ivy League schools until the late rounds and it’s sort of a bias against them. The thought process is: this guy is going to retire after a couple years and use their degree to make a lot more money. In Donato’s case, this probably isn’t true right now though. He looks like an NHL caliber player.