With their third pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, and their second of the second round, Don Sweeney and the Bruins went international and selected Swedish defenseman Liam Pettersson with the 61st overall pick.
At 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds, Pettersson is an offensive-minded defenseman, and spent the majority of his 2024-25 with the Växjö Lakers HC J20 club, and posted six goals and 21 points, along with a minus-5 rating, in 39 games.
Pettersson also made five appearances for Växjö’s SHL club, and posted six goals and 11 points in six playoff games for the program’s J18 club.
Based on pre-draft rankings, the pick appears to be a bit of a reach for the Bruins in the now, with Pettersson ranked 94th by EliteProspects.com and 154th by McKeen’s Hockey leading into this year’s draft.
But, with all that in mind, Pettersson was featured as a ‘late riser’ by multiple outlets in the final weeks leading up to the 2025 NHL Draft.
“Pettersson has room to compete harder in tough areas, and if he does, his ceiling shifts upward,” Viktor Ahlund wrote in a mini-profile on Pettersson for McKeen’s Hockey. “Offensively, he has a decent skill set with a steady passing game and flashes of upside from the blue line. He’s not going to quarterback a power play, but he can contribute as a secondary option. If he takes a step physically and sharpens his compete level, there’s real potential for him to emerge as a dependable bottom four defenseman at the next level.”
“Pettersson received some love late in the season for his play in the Swedish U-20 league. He put up some good numbers during the regular season and then proceeded to blow out the doors with Vaxjo’s U-18 team in the playoffs,” DailyFaceoff’s Steven Ellis wrote earlier this month. “The physical, puck-moving defender loves to rush the puck up and act as a fourth forward at times. He’s great on both the power play and the penalty kill, which is always a plus at this point in a player’s development. Pettersson could afford to add more speed to his game, but he absolutely deserves to get drafted and potentially become another value pick out of Sweden.”
This pick originally belonged to Carolina, but was sent to Colorado in the Mikko Rantanen trade, and later shipped (along with USHL scorer Will Zellers) to Boston in the 2025 trade deadline move that sent Charlie Coyle to the Avalanche. It was a trade that looked good in the moment, and has really only gotten better Boston, as Coyle’s Colorado tenure is already over, with Coyle moved to the Blue Jackets before the start of the 2025 NHL Draft on Friday.
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