NEWPORT, R.I. — For the first time all day, Myles Brosnan got to sink into a couch and take a deep breath.
It was upstairs, away from the crowd of friends and family who had moved outside. There was relative silence for the time being.
Brosnan had spent most of the day on a couch or in a chair. But that came with the angst of waiting for an NHL team to call his name. The squirming, the changing positions, the sweat — oh yeah, the sweat.
Remembering to breathe isn’t easy on days like Saturday.
They say your draft day is supposed to be one of the best days of your life. And for Brosnan, it surely was. After all, he was drafted in the seventh round, pick 196, by the Detroit Red Wings. A dream came true.
But as Brosnan sank into that brown leather couch on the third floor, he looked more like a kid with shell shock.
The previous four hours and 52 minutes had been agonizing. So when I asked if he had a few minutes for an interview about being picked, he was quick to point to the third floor, which was away from everyone wanting photos, videos and high-fives.
He just seemed to need a second.
And after the day he had, who could blame him?
The kid just experienced the character arc of a five-season TV series protagonist all compacted into five hours.
The Toronto Maple Leafs held the 12th pick in the third round. That’s when Dexter Southfield forward Jake Assad (Franklin, Mass.) turned to me.
“This could be Bros right here,” he said.
Assad’s observation made its way around quickly. Brosnan was labeled a fourth-round candidate by NHL Central Scouting, but the third round was a real possibility. It could be any of these teams, but Toronto was a potential destination.
The room went silent as the pick was announced.
“With the 12th pick of the third round, the Toronto Maple Leafs select Mans Gudmundsson.”
The “mah” sound in “Mans” was enough to get everybody ready to burst into cheers and hoots and hollers…until the rest of the name was read.
Brosnan had to shake his hands out after the pick. “This is crazy,” he said with a laugh.
Assad echoed a similar sentiment for the 79th pick, which was by the Red Wings. It was another name that began with M: Michael Orsulak, a goalie from Czechia.
“At least we know we’re in the ‘M’s’ now,” Ava Brosnan, one of Myles’ older sisters, said.
The draft setup at the house was simple — the kids were mainly on the deck watching NHL Network, while most of the adults were in the living room.
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There was a nervous energy in the air in Round 3, but it leaned toward excitement. The kind of nervous energy you get before something you’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
Some stories flew between picks. Like when Dexter Southfield forward and Northeastern commit Owen McHale (Charlestown, Mass.), who was at the draft party, told an NHL team that he expected to go in the eighth round. The NHL Draft only goes seven.
“You ready for the 8th round, O?” St. George’s forward Max Donatelli (Barrington, R.I.) quipped.
The first round of the draft came up, specifically Tommy Bleyl. The group brought up how Bleyl, who went 31st to the Nashville Predators, toe-dragged around Everett Baldwin (Providence, R.I.), who went in the fifth round to the Tampa Bay Lightning last June and was at the draft party, and scored on a sick shot this past winter. McHale was more than happy to get up and demonstrate.
And, of course, there were Brosnan’s Winchester friends in his older jerseys, making sure that his last name was on the front. Early in the draft, one of them consistently told Brosnan that any player picked above him wasn’t as good.
Brosnan got more serious as the third round progressed, staying focused on the TV as the picks rolled in. When it was announced that the pizza had arrived, no one got up.
Donatelli did have one more trick up his sleeve: He texted “Myles Brosnan, get it done,” to an NHL scout friend of his.
“That probably wasn’t very smart,” Baldwin said to him.
When that team traded up in the fourth round, the anticipation rose. But the team selected someone else.
Brosnan was left to wait.
When Brosnan was growing up, he and his friends had a mini hockey league. They joked that he would be drenched in sweat from the second the ball dropped.
The same was true for Saturday — once the picks started, the sweating never stopped.
“When I was just sitting next to him now, he was dripping,” Winchester buddy Ben Wright said towards the end of the fourth round.
Which was understandable. As a hockey player, Brosnan likes having things under his control. If his team is down a goal or in a last-stand situation to protect a lead, he wants to be out there. Whether it works out or not, he knows he can do something to impact the outcome.
“Once the draft clock ticks, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Brosnan said. “That’s good for some people. I think for me as an athlete, like if it’s a game, I like to go out there and make a difference. The Draft is kind of a funny thing where you can’t really make a difference anymore. You’re stuck.”
He was also being picked straight out of prep. Brosnan was more than good enough to opt to forego his senior year at Dexter Southfield and play in the USHL or QMJHL, and no one would’ve batted an eye. But the Harvard commit wanted to get his diploma and be a regular kid — a senior in high school.
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In response, he turned in one of the best seasons for a prep defenseman in recent memory, got time with the U.S. National Team Development Program, the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers and played in the highly-scouted All-American Prospects Game.
But prep seems to have developed a stigma among NHL scouts in recent seasons. Entering Saturday, a prep player hadn’t been selected before the fifth round since 2022.
“I thought I had a really good year,” Brosnan said. “But I took a certain path, and I’m happy I took that path.”
While some teams assured Brosnan that they had him ranked in the third and fourth rounds, the draft is all over the place. Compare all 32 teams’ complete rankings, and players 30-300 will vary quite a bit.
“I knew I was a player that could’ve been drafted in a lot of different places,” Brosnan said. “I knew I was scattered all over the board going in, which was a little stressful.”
As the third round was wrapping up, Catherine Brosnan, Myles’ mother, was in the kitchen. I expected to find her stressed and on edge; she wasn’t. She explained that she didn’t really know how this all worked and that because he played in prep, it wouldn’t matter where he was picked. Once he got to a team and arrived at development camp, they’d see his value.
Come the middle of the fourth round, however, Catherine made her way out to the deck with the kids. The Boston Bruins had just traded the 111th pick when I heard her say something.
“This is like torture.”
The St. Louis Blues showed considerable interest in Brosnan. It was disappointing when they picked other players with their two fourth-round picks.
But early in Round 5, the Blues were on the clock again with the 139th pick. This would make sense given Brosnan’s ranking. Sure, teams passed on him in Rounds 3 and 4. But early in Round 5, it felt like the new place.
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Everyone on the deck had already switched seats twice to try to spark some change. Brosnan found himself in the middle of the group in a lawn chair. He rocked back and forth.
When pick 139 came up, he sat with his legs outstretched and his phone on his stomach. When the Blues picked Nicholas Bogas, his expression changed. His face dropped. He headed inside to sit between his parents, Kieran and Catherine, on the couch. Some other family members sat around them.
Things weren’t going his way. Friends went from being silent during picks and locked on the TV, to moving around a bit more, going on their phones and chatting amongst each other.
It was telling that in one of the most stressful and challenging moments of his 18-year-old life, Brosnan went back to his parents.
“Being able to sit with my parents and some of my closest family members and peers really helped me wait it out and be patient,” Brosnan said.
Kieran constantly checked his phone and offered comments to Brosnan after picks went by. Catherine tried to offer up words of encouragement.
“You couldn’t pay me to go through another one of these,” Kieran said before the 149th pick. He had his arm around his son for much of the fifth round.
Brosnan’s attention shifted to his phone. As name after name went by and celebrations ensued on TV, it couldn’t be further from what was happening in his life.
The New York Rangers had two straight picks at the start of the sixth round. “All right, c’mon,” Kieran said. “Let’s go to New York.” The Rangers opted for two other players.
Earlier in the day, Baldwin had talked about his own NHL Draft experience a year earlier. He fell a bit and was ultimately taken by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fifth round.
“I was so nervous,” Baldwin said. “I was just clutching a pillow.”
Come the 184th pick, Brosnan was hugging a pillow of his own.
Something needed to break the malaise. It was supposed to be Brosnan’s big day. The tension, the stress, the angst — it had to break.
Brosnan jumped up with a phone call and ran outside to take it. Teams will often call players right around when they’re drafted.
A few seconds later, someone up by the living room TV yelled out that it was Myles. The dam broke, and people screamed and cheered. Brosnan was quickly ushered back in.
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The Carolina Hurricanes were on the clock with pick 192.
“The Stanley Cup champions!” Kieran said as he gave his son a bear hug. Photos were taken of the big moment.
The kids outside started to stir, and Brosnan went out towards them, expecting to see his name on the TV.
Only he hadn’t been picked. NHL Network had put up a “Best available” graphic, and Brosnan was on it. Someone mistook that for him being picked.
Now, Brosnan sat in the middle of all his friends, not only having not been drafted yet, but after having the release of thinking he was drafted…only to still not be drafted. The Hurricanes' “pick is in” graphic stayed on the TV for what felt like an eternity.
Everyone watched the TV in awe, hoping that, yes, actually, the Hurricanes did pick Brosnan. This, after all that Brosnan had already gone through today, had to be a nightmare.
The Hurricanes traded that pick to Anaheim to acquire the rights to John Carlson. The Ducks picked Noah Kosick instead.
Someone must be playing a cruel joke.
“That was probably the worst feeling in my hockey career,” Brosnan said.
Brosnan slunk into that middle seat on the porch again until he went out to the front yard with Kieran.
All the kids stirred amongst themselves, realizing the calamity they had just witnessed — something you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
“You’re getting close to the two hundreds, and I was just kind of thinking I’m probably not getting drafted,” Brosnan said. “That was extremely helpless.”
That’s when Patrick Donnelly, serving as our photographer at the draft party, caught my eye.
He had been following Brosnan all day to make sure to capture the big moment on camera. Donnelly had his phone open to the NHL app, which was ahead.
“Detroit,” he mouthed to me. Into the living room we hustled, and most of the kids on the deck followed along.
And with the fourth pick of the final round, the whole neighborhood heard who the Red Wings selected.
“That was arguably the best moment of my hockey career,” Brosnan said. “It was like the craziest two minutes of my life.”
The sense of relief was palpable. The air was finally back in the room.
“I haven’t drank in a year,” Kieran said. “But I need a drink.”
The celebration was short-lived. After talking to the Red Wings, word was that development camp began Sunday, meaning Brosnan would have to fly out of Logan Airport, which was one hour and 40 minutes away, that night.
There would be no big celebration.
Brosnan and Kieran hustled to pack clothes and hockey equipment into suitcases. Everyone gathered on the front lawn for quick photos and goodbyes. Friends made sure to see if they could still stay over. They chanted Brosnan’s name as father and son filled the family's Suburban for the trip to the airport.
But five minutes later, the car pulled back up. A stunned-looking Brosnan got out of the passenger seat.
“Guys,” he said. “They just traded the pick. I don’t know where I’m going now.”
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Everyone was stunned. And with the way the day went, it would only make sense that yet another bad thing might happen.
Someone eventually said that he must be kidding.
“I am kidding. The flight isn’t until tomorrow!” Brosnan belted out with his arms in the air to raucous cheers.
He could finally celebrate the best — and craziest — day of his life. He could take a breath.
