I kinda disagree with the "if they could draft" thing. I don't think they are as bad as the perception is. Obviously 2015 was a miss. Neely acknowledged as much today.
2016- McAvoy, Frederic, Lindgren, Koppanen, Clarke, Steen
McAvoy's arguably the 2nd best player in that draft (Matthews) and they got him at 16. Wish they too,k DeBrincat or Sam Girard over Frederic, but Freddy is at least an NHL contributor. They traded Lindgren to NYR in the Nash deal and he's turned into a useful, every day defensman in the NHL. Steen has reached the NHL as a 6th round pick so even if he never quite sticks I think it's a win. Koppanen looks like AHL fodder.
2017- Vaakanainen, Studnicka, Swayman, Pare, Berglund, Bukac
This wasn't a great season for Vaakanainen or Studnicka but it's too early to write them off as busts. Swayman looks like the #1 goalie of the future. Berglund is in Providence. Pare and Bukac busted out, but they were 6th and 7th round draft picks.
2018- Andersson, Lauko, Hall, McFaul, Shen
Andersson was their first pick at 57 overall. He was part of the Kase/Backes trade. Lauko has had a solid start to his career and looks to have an NHL future. Hall had a good career in at Yale before missing a ton of time to Covid and then getting hurt for Providence this year. McFaul is still in college. Shen was a 7th round flier who came over, didn't do much and decided to go back to Russia.
It's too soon to pass judgement on the 2019 or 2020 draft classes.
The NHL draft is picking 18 year olds and trying to project how good they'll be when they turn 21/22. It's awfully hard to do. The Bruins have some flaws in their draft process, but I wouldn't call them bad. They tend to go for low ceiling, high floor types. They don't like to gamble on the proverbial boom or bust pick. That makes them look bad when that pick booms, like DeBrincat.
I think the real drag on the process is they've been good so they pick low and also have spent a lot of draft capital and prospects to try to improve the NHL team.