Whenever Jake Bean is a topic of conversation, my mind goes back to the 2016 NHL Draft.
Right on the heels of using first-round picks in consecutive years on left-handed defensemen, the expectation was that then-general manager Ron Francis and company would use their first of two 2016 first-rounders on a forward.
After a run of forwards that saw Clayton Keller, Alex Nylander, Tyson Jost, and Logan Brown all come off the board, the leading candidates at Carolina’s spot were Kieffer Bellows, Luke Kunin, and German Rubtsov, among others.
Instead, the name called at number 13 overall was that of the undersized, offensive-minded, left-handed defenseman.