Every off-season brings change in all sports when it comes to rosters. One team that went through a big change last off-season was the Boston Bruins, both in free agency and through trades. Things didn’t go too well for the Black and Gold, who finished tied for last place in the Eastern Conference with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney is facing a rather big off-season once again in terms of rebuilding the roster during a retool for the 2025-26 season. There were some big subtractions from the Boston roster that played a role in how the season went. Here are two players the Bruins wish they had back on their roster.
Linus Ullmark
The big trade last off-season happened in June when Sweeney traded goalie Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators for Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic, and a draft pick. Sweeney broke up his goaltending tandem of Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, but he did so without having a contract for Swayman, which became the story of the off-season and training camp.
Anything that could have gone wrong for Swayman and the Bruins did. Korpisalo played better in Boston than he did in Ottawa, but trading Ullmark without a deal in place for Swayman was not the best decision by Sweeney. Fans saw how well Ullmark and Swayman played together, and trading him weakened the Black and Gold goaltending. I get trading Ullmark, and it’s easy to sit here and say they should have kept him, but running it back with the duo may have been the way to go, and then figure things out this summer.
Jake DeBrusk
When the season ended last spring at the hands of the Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it appeared that Jake DeBrusk had played his last game with the Bruins. That ended up being the case when he left for the Vancouver Canucks in free agency on July 1. Boy, did the Bruins miss him.
DeBrusk provided Boston with secondary production and was a key member of the top power play unit as well as a penalty killer. Was it a coincidence that the Black and Gold struggled in all of these areas this season? Morgan Geekie, of all people, provided Boston with the second most production behind David Pastrnak, but DeBrusk’s game in all three zones is what was missed. Was he an inconsistent player? Yes, but you know what you got from the 14th overall pick in the 2015 Entry Draft, and that was everything that was missing in 2024-25.
It’s easy to say that the Bruins missed Ullmark and DeBrusk this past season, but some of the biggest areas where they struggled were areas where both players had been good. It makes you wonder what would have happened this season if both had remained with Boston.