Bruins hoping kids turn out all right

The kid rated with the best chance, right winger Jordan Caron, has the size (6 feet 2 inches, 207 pounds) coveted by Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli. We’ll begin to find out during next month’s development camp if he has the kind of game to match his frame.

The same for defenseman Ryan Button, their second pick, selected 86th overall for his ability to move the puck - a favorite subject these days at the Garden and most of the other 29 NHL arenas.

Was it a good weekend for the Bruins? Check this space regularly in the next 5-7 years for that answer.

All pro drafts are an imperfect science, and like baseball, hockey attempts to pin its hopes and invest its millions on a couple of hundred 18- and 19-year-olds every June. Parents, feel free to kick that around in your family therapy session this week. The Ottawa Senators once figured a sweet-faced kid with velvety hands named Alexandre Daigle would put their franchise on the map, but he proved to be more a road to ruin than Rome.

With Caron, the Bruins figure they have a potential power forward who could be in their lineup by some point in the 2011-12 season. He grew up in northern Quebec, in a village (Sayabec) of about 2,000 people, and he’ll return this season to the Rimouski Oceanic for one more season of junior seasoning. Chiarelli compared him with a young Glen Murray, and yes, the GM emphasized young, rather than the Muzz who aged out and then got bought out.

Button is a high-end skater, an Alberta boy, in the mold of San Jose speedster Marc-Edouard Vlasic. He’ll likely go back to Prince Albert (Western League) this September, unless he unexpectedly shows up in Wilmington and skates rings around Ristuccia. Stranger things have happened. Witness: Milan Lucic, who arrived in the Hub in September 2007, pegged to be the captain of the ’07-08 Vancouver Giants. Looch came. He stayed. He isn’t going anywhere.

“He was a big piece on their back end,’’ said Wayne Smith, Boston’s director of amateur scouting, referring to Button’s impact with Prince Albert. “His will and determination stuck out.’’ Smith added that Button is “determined to be a champion.’’

Again, folks, he just turned 18 in March, and he cannot yet be considered the key to stopping Boston’s 37-year Cup drought.

“If I have a pattern to my game,’’ said Button, reached at home in Alberta, “right now it probably would be a guy like a Kris Letang from Pittsburgh.’’

He’d like to model his game after Anaheim’s Scott Niedermayer. No telling yet how Button plays, but he at least has a good eye for talent.

Once Caron and Button were selected, said Chiarelli, it changed the franchise’s focus for the next three picks (Nos. 112, 176, and 206).

“I really liked our blend,’’ he said, referring to the first two picks in particular. “We got size and scoring [in Caron] to start, and then the puck-moving guy. Then we were able to focus more on sandpaper players. Size and grit are the common denominators [of the last three picks].’’

Lane MacDermid, a 6-3 left winger and son of ex-Whaler Paul MacDermid, was Boston’s third pick. Twice passed up in previous drafts, he played as an overage junior with Windsor (OHL) this past season, engaging in no fewer than 17 fights. That’s sandpaper.

“I think that’s one aspect of my game,’’ said MacDermid, considered a grinding hard worker.

“Obviously, I do fight and I’m not afraid to stick up for my teammates and stuff like that. I also do other things pretty well. I’m a pretty physical player and I’m pretty good at penalty kills and stuff like that.’’

MacDermid was born in Hartford but has spent most of his life in Sauble Beach, Ontario, where his father runs a campground near the Lake Huron shore. He’s a couple of inches bigger than his dad.

“Yeah, I guess so,’’ said the future Bruin. “But I wouldn’t say in the stomach aspect.’’

Yeah, kids, don’t they say the craziest things?

Tyler Randell, a right winger with Kitchener (OHL), was the club’s fourth selection. According to Chiarelli, he already has an NHL-caliber shot, one that was good for 24 goals in 73 games this past season. He needs to pick up his skating, especially his starts, said Chiarelli, but he should be a tough player to defend one-on-one.

The final pick, center Ben Sexton, grew up around Ottawa, where his father, Randy, once was the Senators’ general manager (and today is Florida’s assistant GM). Sexton will tune up with a year of amateur hockey in British Columbia, then head to Clarkson for 2010-11.

Armed with only five picks, the Bruins left without adding to their goaltender larder, a position that most clubs try to cover here, if only to be superstitious.

Chiarelli said he believes the position is covered, noting the recent signing of Matt Dalton out of Bemidji State and, of course, Tuukka Rask, who has uniform and pads waiting for him in Boston.

So there is your Class of 2009. Five kids. The future of the Boston Bruins. Under Chiarelli’s directorship, the Bruins now have Zach Hamill, Joe Colborne, and Caron to show as their prized draft-day offspring.

Still too early to tell if the prized ever turn into prizes.