The Boston Bruins have begun training camp for the 2025-26 season.  Their offseason saw a lot of moves, some of which I actually suggested in my off-season preview, and the team has a lot of open roster spots to be had.  With a new head coach and a new draft class I have yet to talk about, there’s a lot to get into.  So, let’s dive right in.

I am going to start with the draft as it happened a while ago and will have little to no effect on this upcoming season.  Before we get started there is something I want to point out.  I do not know hockey like I know the other sports and I do not follow college, high school, or Juniors hockey.  Thus, a lot of what I know is coming from what I have read about these players and by looking at their statistics.  It’s not the best way to get to know players in any sport, but it’s all I got. 

With that said, there was a clear theme to this year’s Bruins draft.  As Ty Anderson pointed out, when Sweeney, Neely, or anyone else from the Bruins organization talked about the draft class there was no talk about grinders, or two-way play, or grit, or hard to play against.  This year’s draft was all about skill.  The Bruins knew they needed an influx of skill into the organization and they did their best to accomplish just that. 

With their first pick, number 7 overall, they chose James Hagens.  Hagens is a 5’11” 186-pound center who will be resuming his college career at Boston College this fall.  Hagens was the best skilled forward available when the Bruins picked and they turned down trade offers to pick the much-needed center.  At this time last year Hagens was projected to be the top pick in the draft.  He slid down due to his pedestrian production for BC this season.  Hagens isn’t the biggest guy on the ice and being an 18-year-old freshman, he struggled a bit dealing with the size of the opposing players.  He still managed to put up 11 goals and 26 assists in 37 games and was a plus 21.   Compared to the Bruins first round pick from last year, Dean Letourneau, who scored zero goals and had 3 assists for BC in 36 games, Hagens looks like Wayne freaking Gretzky.  Hagens has already put on weight (listed as 177 pounds at BC) and could actually still be growing at only 18 years of age.  He’s never going to be a big guy but he should do a much better job playing with the big boys this up coming season.  His skills, which he showed off at Bruins prospects camp, are tremendous for any size.  His skating seems to be at an elite level and he is an excellent stick handler.  Assuming the Bruins don’t get upset that he doesn’t throw his weight around in the corners or in the front of the net, he has a great chance of being in either Boston or Providence as soon as his season in BU ends.  He and North Dakota’s Will Zellars are the two best prospects the Bruins have and will be fun to keep an eye on this college hockey season. 

As for the rest of the draft, I have no idea about any of these guys.  Their second pick (51 overall), center William Moore, will be joining Hagens in the BU line up in the fall as the Bruins will have no less than 6 players on the Terriers this season.  NESN really needs to put those games on TV.  After Moore they drafted two defensemen, two more centers and a left wing.  One of the Defenseman, Vashek Blanar from the Czech Republic, a complete unknown at the draft, also turned some heads at Prospects Camp.  All the reports out of camp were that there was some good skill on display from both the new guys and returning guys.  While most of them won’t be in Providence this year, the Bruins may have a nice pipe line of talent coming up in the next few seasons.

Before the draft began the Bruins made one of the biggest moves they had to make this offseason and hired former Bruin Marco Sturm as the new head coach.  I like this hire simply because they did not just jump on the coaching carousel and grab the latest retread.  They went with someone new.  Someone with a fresh outlook.  Some new blood.  I like that.  Now, is Sturm a good coach?  Who the hell knows. He was a head coach in the AHL where his team went 119-80-11-6 and made the playoffs three straight years.  Before that he was an assistant for 4 years with the Kings.  He also coached the German National team to a silver medal in the 2018 Olympics.  Germany had never even made the Gold Medal game before so that’s a nice accomplishment.  So he has plenty of experience and success under his belt.  Will that lead to success with the Bruins?  Only time will tell but I think he is definitely qualified for the job. 

What kind of a coach is Sturm?  Well, all the talk is that he is a defense first coach.  It’s how the Kings operate.  This I am not a big fan of.  I realize that keeping the puck out of your net is important and the easiest way to get back to being competitive, but as Bruins team President Cam Neely once said, you can’t try to win every game 1-0.  They have to be able to score goals and it has to come from more than one line.  Assuming he is healthy (which is already in question), Pastrnak and his line mates will put up goals.  But you cannot be a one-line team and succeed in the NHL.  I will get into the roster moves that can help solve this problem later but they are only roster moves that can happen if the coach and the organization are willing to sacrifice a little defense for offense.  Is Sturm, in his first year, when he is trying to establish himself as an NHL head coach, going to want to do that?  We shall see.  Hopefully the young guys will just play so well in the preseason that they won’t have a choice but to play them.  Much like Poitras did 2 years ago and Bergeron did back in the day. 

A big, possibly the biggest, task that Sturm and his staff have to accomplish is fixing the power play.  They were horrendous last season on the PP and they need to make it a weapon again.  Especially for a team that struggles to score.  Sturm brought in Steve Spott to be his PP coach.  Spott coached the PP in Dallas where it was the 7^th best in the league.  Hopefully his fresh outlook and style will be able to elevate the Bruins power play to that level.  He will have some better options with the man advantage this season as well.  Fixing the power play will go a long way to improving this team.                  

Now let’s get into the guys who will be on the ice next season.  One of the first things the Bruins did this offseason was the number one objective on my to do list, they signed Morgan Geekie to a six-year $5.5 mil. contract.  This was a no brainer and yet Sweeney managed to not only not screw it up but got him to sign at a great number.  I had Geekie coming in over $7 mil and they got him at $5.5 mil.  Great job by Sweeney.  And great job getting it done early and with no animosity.  Unlike last year’s big re-signing.  For those people that think Geekie only scored 33 goals last season because he skated with David Pastrnak, there is good news.  Pastrnak is still a Bruin.  Which means, Geekie can skate with him again next season!  See, simple solution.  As a matter of fact, I expect the two of them to be centered by Elias Lindholm, all of whom are now signed for the next 6 years, and for that to be one of the top lines in the entire NHL.     

The next thing they did was also right off of my to do list, re-signing defenseman Henri Jokiharju. Joki also took less money than I thought he would with a 3-year, $9 Million dollar deal.  The Bruins are thin at right shot defenseman and signing Joki really solidifies that side.  He may not put up a lot of points but I though Joki was a very solid, steady defensemen and he and Zadorov made a very good pairing on the back end.      

Speaking of right shot defensemen, the Bruins also traded for one when they gave up a 7^th round pick and Ryan Mast for Victor Soderstrom.  The 24-year-old Soderstrom was in the Arizona system and when they moved to Utah, he decided to go back to Sweden.  Can you blame him?  However, once his rights were traded to Boston he decided to return to the NHL and signed a one-year deal.  I don’t know if Soderstrom will make the line up but he will give them some much needed depth and they gave up nothing to get him.  The fact that being acquired by the Bruins made him want to come back over feels like a good sign to me. 

The Bruins then signed Mason Lohrei to a two-year extension for $6.4 mil.  Lohrei had a tough season last year but I think a lot of that had to due with him being put in a position he was not ready for.  He should have been a third pairing guy instead, due to injuries, he was their top defenseman.  His league worst -43 tells you how that went.  With another year under his belt and hopefully being able to play a role much more suited for his experience and skill set, I think Lohrei is going to have a bounce back season and this contract is a good bridge contract for him and the team.  If he plays well, he doesn’t have to wait long to be compensated appropriately but if last season wasn’t just a bad situation and he plays bad, the Bruins aren’t stuck with him on a long contract. 

The Bruins also signed Jordan Harris and Jonathan Aspirot as depth defensemen.  Harris has NHL experience while Aspirot is an AHL player. 

The Bruins also made a handful of moves on the forward side.  First, they signed Marat Khusnutdinov to a two-year extension.  After trading for Marat at the deadline, you had to figure they would want to get a good look at him.  He didn’t turn any heads with just 3 goals and 2 assists in his 18 games last season but he also wasn’t exactly playing with Esposito and Neely.  Hopefully he will show more playing with guys who can do more on offense. 

The Bruins then surprised a lot of people by signing Tanner Jeannot to a 5 year, $17-million-dollar contract.  Jeannot is a 4^th line grinder.  Someone who is going to make the Bruins hard to play against.  He’s only 28 so he’s just coming into his prime, I guess.  He played for the Kings last season which is where Marco Sturm came from so I would guess he has some familiarity with him.  Jeannot did score 24 goals in his rookie season of 2021-22.  Of course he has score 26 goals since.  Was this an overpay?  Probably.  But did they have to overpay to get a guy to come to a team that most people think is a borderline play-off team?   Probably.  But if he does help the Bruins in the toughness department and helps create the culture that Sturm is trying to establish, maybe it won’t be so bad.

The Bruin also traded a 5^th round pick for Viktor Arvidsson.  I really like this move.  Arvidson scored 15 goals last season which would have had him tied for 5^th on the Bruins.  He was hurt the prior season and only played 18 games but the two seasons before that he broke the 20-goal plateau.  Two seasons ago he scored 10 powerplay goals.  For refence, last season Pastrnak lead the Bruins with 9 PP goals.  Arvidsson is one of the players that could really help the power play become a weapon for the Bruins instead of their fans wishing they could just decline the penalty NFL style.  At the very least he should be able to replace Coyle’s production from last year.   

The Bruins added two bottom six energy guys in Mike Eyssimont and old friend Sean Kuraly.  Bruins have a lot of “energy guys” on this roster.  Finding which ones should make the team is going to be something Sweeney and Sturm need to accomplish during camp.  And not having all of them make the team, which is something I am afraid they will do, so that more actually talented guys can take the ice for the Bs this year will be important. 

The two most intriguing players that Bruins acquired this offseason are both AHLers.  Matej Blumel and Alex Steeves were both signed to one-year contracts and could both play big roles on the Bruins. I stress the word “could”.  Here’s the thing.  We all know the Bruins lack goal scoring.  Well, these kids seem to have just that skill.  Blumel led the AHL with 39 goals last season and Steeves was second with 36.  For reference, 3 guys tied for Providence’s goal lead with 21.  If these guys were playing for the P-Bruins last year Bruins fans would have been screaming for them to get called up.  If the Bruins are serious about adding skill and goal scoring to their line up then these two guys will get a really good look during the preseason and training camp.  Steeves had 36 goals in 59 games with 26 helpers.  Blumel had 39 goals and 33 assists in 67 games.  Would I expect 30 plus goals from these guys in the NHL?  Nope.  But 20 could be possible.  We will have to see what they look like playing with NHLers but I have high hopes for these two. 

The Bruins also signed goaltender Michael DiPietro to an extension.  This was interesting to me because DiPietro would have to go through waivers to get sent down to Providence this year and I can’t imagine last year’s Baz Bastien Memorial Award winner (the AHL version of the Vezina) will make it through waivers.  This means the Bruins have 3 goaltenders.  I really would love to know what the plan is there.  Are they going to try and get him through waivers?  If he plays well in camp, will they trade Korpisalo?  Will they cut Korpisalo? They still owe him $3mil per year for 3 more seasons.  I understand keeping him for camp incase DiPietro is a “4A” player, but if he proves he can handle himself in the NHL, Korpisalo needs to go.  Hopefully he plays well enough to make them have to make a tough decision because Korpisalo sucks and was disgruntle last season.    

Those are the important moves the Bruins made this offseason.  There were other small moves but those are the ones that are going to impact this season. 

So what does all this mean?  What this means is that hopefully the Bruins will have a lot of hard decisions to make and that they will make the right ones (very doubtful).  Because here’s the thing.  Everyone knows the Bruins lacked scoring last season.  They were tied for the 5^th fewest goals in the league.  They only had 3 guys score over 20 goals and they traded one of them at the deadline.  For reference, 127 players scored at least 20 goals.  The 4^th leading goal scorer on the Bruins scored 17 goals.  That puts him tied for 172^nd in the league.  These are not good stats. 

The Bruins seemed to acknowledge the need for scoring and skill and speed and even youth in the offseason.  The question is, will they be able to go through with it.  And, will money become a factor.  It seems to me that the youth is the way to go if they truly want to add offensive firepower to the team.  The way I see it as of right now (and this can and probably will change as training camp progresses), there are 15 guys for 12 spots on the forward lines.  And that is if they send guys like Beecher and Poitras down to Providence.  And trade Zacha.  Word is they are looking to move him but the only team that wants him right now is the Canadiens and the Bruins are reluctant to trade him there.

So we have the top line of Geekie-Lindholm-Pastrnak.  If last season is any indication and there is not reason for it not to be, that should be one of the best lines in the NHL.  The 4^th line should be Eyssimont–Kuraly—Jeannot.  Those are the easy ones, though Kastelic could work his way into the 4^th line.   As far as the middle three lines go, I think the 6 most talented guys are going to be Minton, Mittelstadt, Arvidsson, Locmelis, Blumel, and Steeves.  If they center Minton and Locmelis and split the AHL guys, Blumel and Steeves on separate lines and then have Arvidsson skate with Locmelis and Mittelstadt with Minton to balance defense and offense, they could have three good scoring lines. 

I already talked about Steeves and Blumel.  Minton, I feel, will make the team as the 3^rd center at least.  By all accounts he is very good in his own zone and plays a smart reliable game on defense.  The Bruins love centers that play well in their own zone.  He had a nice couple of games in the Prospects Showcase up in Buffalo. 

Dan Locmelis also had a good Prospects camp.  I don’t know what happened but after he left UMass he really picked up his game.  He was very good for the P-Bruins and then played well in an international tournament before his outing in Buffalo.  He seems poised to make an impact on the big club if given the chance. 

Mittelstadt is a consistent 14-15 goal scorer.  Nothing to write home about but hopefully he will be more productive playing with better players than the Bruins had when he joined the team last season.  He seems to be the best option left.  They could go with Khusnutdinov if he has a big camp but I don’t see that coming. 

So the lines I would go with are…

Geekie—Lindholm—Pastrnak

Mittelstadt —Minton—Blumel

Steeves—Locmelis—Arvidsson

Eyssimont—Kuraly—Jeannot

I put Mittelstadt on the wing because he sucks at face offs and I would like to keep the young guy, Minton, at his natural position to make things easier for him. 

Will the Bruins go with these lines?  I doubt it.  I would be so surprised if they went with that many rookies in their lineup.  My guess is they are going to want as many vets as possible, especially if all the talk about Sturm wanting to be all about defense is true.  But if they feel this is a “bridge year” then why not throw the kids with the talent out there?  If they want offense, put the offensively skilled players on the ice.  And trust your defense and goaltending to handle keeping the puck out of the net.  I am not saying forwards don’t need to play well in their own end.  I am saying that it shouldn’t be their priority.  The Bruins shouldn’t prioritize it either.  Get guys who can score and teach them to play in their own end. 

Speaking of the defense, they should be much improved as well.  The most important thing is that Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm have both been medically cleared to start camp.  Having the two of them at full health will improve the defense by itself (until the playoffs when Lindholm disappears).  Not just by having them on the ice but also by slotting guys, such as Lohrei, into roles they are better suited for.  Having Jokiharju for an entire season will help as well.  The defense should be solid at worst.  Figure McAvoy, Lidholm, Lohrei, Zadorov, Joki, and Andrew Peeke with Harris as the 7^th.  Victor Soderstrom can easily play himself into the lineup, most likely in Peeke’s place.  That’s a good group of guys with a diverse set of skills.  Some stay-at-home guys, some puck movers, and a big physical guy.  It’s a group that should work well together and be a very solid back end for the Bruins. 

One of the biggest questions heading into this season is, of course, the goaltending.  I think Jeremy Swayman is going to have a much better season than last year.  Holding out and missing training camp will derail a season like 90% of the time.  Very few athletes in any sport have had good seasons after holding out.  With a full camp and no uncertainty coming into the season, I think he is going to rebound nicely.  He already looked a lot better in the international tournament he played in this summer.  Marco Sturm being a defensive coach and the team playing better in front of him, on both ends of the ice, will help him as well.   

I already talked about the back up goalie situation.  I hope the team can figure out a way to make DiPietro the back up because he has to be better than Korpisalo and he won’t be disgruntled if Swayman get the bulk of the playing time. 

OK, so what’s the bottom line?  The way I see this season playing out for the Bruins there are 4 ways the season can go. 

1)Pastrnak’s injury lingers or, as what happened with Christian McCaffrey of the 49ers last year, gets worst and he misses a bunch of time.  This will lead to the Bruins hoping the ping pong balls bounce the right way at the end of the season. 

2)They stay relatively healthy but rely on the vets and grinders so that they can play lock down defense even if the offense suffers for it and they end up being a .500 team on the edge of the playoffs. 

3)They play the kids and one or two of them pop and the offense is more than one line.  This would make them a solid team securely in the playoffs. 

4) They play the kids and they all pop and they suddenly have three good offensive lines and are a Cup contender (though I don’t know if a really young team could win the Cup). 

Which scenario do I feel is most likely?  Number 2.  The Bruins talked a big game about wanting offense and skill but when it comes down to it, I don’t think they have the guts to take that plunge.  Especially to start the season.  Maybe if things start out bad, they will give it a try.  They know the easiest way to stay competitive in games is to clog up your own end and keep the games low scoring.  If they feel their jobs are at risk, this is the safe approach they will at least start the season with.  If they are true to their word and will give the young guys a real chance, the 3^rd scenario is what I would expect from the Bruins this season.  I think they have a lot more talent than people are giving them credit for.  Will all the young guys pop?  Probably not but we can dream, can’t we?