The questions surrounding the Bruins’ crop of first-round draft picks swirled. Why them? Why then?

There remained bigger names on the board when the Bruins opted for the trio of Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zachary Senyshyn with the No. 13, No. 14, and No. 15 picks in the 2015 draft. After all, both Mathew Barzal and Kyle Connor were still undrafted — and would go in the next two slots.

The Bruins hadn’t been able to complete their real objective, to move up into the top 10 to pick one of the three best defensemen in the draft. So they ended up with a group that didn’t necessarily please the team’s fans, especially in Senyshyn, seemingly the lightning rod for fans’ displeasure with the Dougie Hamilton trade. Senyshyn — a speedy, skilled winger — was picked 15th, with the selection that came back from Calgary in the deal for the defenseman.

Those fans will get their first chance to look at the first-round picks this week, with the Bruins’ ninth annual development camp at Ristuccia Arena. So will Jay Pandolfo, who steps into his new role running development camp, taking over for general manager Don Sweeney.

“A lot of the guys, especially the draft picks, I haven’t seen,” Pandolfo said on Monday. “So I’m excited to see those guys. They’re all 17, 18 years old. I don’t follow those guys during the season, the draft-eligible guys, so I’m excited to see how those guys are.”

Still, the newly drafted Bruins will not be the only VIPs at the development camp, which will also feature 27-year-old veteran of the Finnish Elite League Joonas Kemppainen — possibly bound for an NHL role with the Bruins — and goaltender Zane McIntyre, the Hobey Baker finalist who will be participating in his sixth development camp.

But the interest surrounding the draft picks — including some prior picks who are breaking out, such as Danton Heinen, the Bruins’ fourth-round pick from 2014 — is tempered by the fact that none of them are likely to be ready in the near future.

It was last season at development camp when the buzz around David Pastrnak began to grow. Even as one of the younger players at camp, Pastrnak looked special. He looked like he was destined to reach the NHL ahead of schedule, which he eventually did.

That won’t be the case this year.

“Off the top of my head I really can’t think of one guy that would come in here and do that,” Pandolfo said. “I don’t think we’re anticipating that this year. I mean, Pastrnak was one of three guys I think from last year from the first round that played [at least 10 games in] the NHL.

“So it shows you how hard it is to make that jump. So we don’t have any anticipation that any of these guys really have a chance to make the Bruins this year. I don’t anticipate any surprises, but you never know.”

That doesn’t mean there will be a shortage of story lines at the annual camp, which will have a larger number than usual with 37 expected attendees. Last year, the Bruins had 23 players in attendance.

But while there will be slight tweaks to the schedule for the players, much of what they will do will be the same as in years past, with skating work and skills work and a little less emphasis on direct competition.

For the teenagers, especially, but also for the rest of the players, Pandolfo said the goals will be “a lot of stuff off the ice, whether it’s nutrition, how to take care of yourself, all those things. Then on the ice, good habits, good practice habits. Trying to do the right thing on the ice, how important that is as a pro — even making a pass, you have to make a good pass all the time. All little things like that.

“If they can just understand how important those things are to get to the next level, I think those guys will come out better, and then you watch and see how they go from there.”

The one thing the organization does not want from the players — especially, say, those first-rounders — is for them to put pressure on themselves over this four-day camp. That’s not the point. It’s not what they want.

“We’re going to certainly stress that to those guys, that this is not a tryout,” Pandolfo said. “Most of those guys anyway that got drafted — actually quite a few of them — will participate in rookie camp and then main training camp, so we have to make sure they understand that, that this is just a time to get to know the organization, get to know the staff, feel comfortable with everything, rather than trying to come in here and show us anything. The scouts and everybody have watched these guys all year long, so we have an idea of what they can do. Now it’s just trying to teach them all the things that are going to make them good pros.”

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @amaliebenjamin.