Boston Bruins: Five players set to hit big milestones in 2019-20 season

The Boston Bruins are an ‘Original Six’ team with a storied history, so to achieve milestones with the organisation is a big deal.

Now obviously, we’ll likely see some youngsters achieve the milestone of making their debut as a member of the Boston Bruins and that shouldn’t be sniffed at; in fact, we remain hopeful that a Jack Studnicka, Oskar Steen or maybe even Axel Andersson make that breakthrough.

However, given that the core pieces have been with the team for so long now, there’s a group of players that can elevate themselves on the tally of most prolific in franchise history.

Whilst it’s hard to envisage Ray Bourque, Johnny Bucyk or Bobby Orr‘s records falling, Phil Esposito‘s fourth overall points total is now within catching distance of at least two current Boston Bruins players should they maintain somewhere close to their recent seasons’ performances to the end of their contracts.

To even fathom being mentioned in the same sentence as any of those bonafide Boston Bruins legends should be seen as a great honour to the present-day players. In fact, we have no doubt that the current group will eventually see more than a few of their numbers joining Bourque and Orr, among others with retired numbers in the TD Garden rafters.

Now every single player on the Boston Bruins roster is likely to hit some level of milestone; Charlie McAvoy seems set to easily put himself in the realms of 35th all-time points among defensemen, likewise guys like Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen and even David Backes could easily make it into the top 100 all-time points among forwards.

That’s not even touching upon the fact Bruce Cassidy will easily hit 200 games as head coach of the Boston Bruins and should, if the past few seasons indicate anything, break the 150-win barrier.

We’re going to look at five of the more significant milestones we expect to see the roster hit this coming regular season:

Zdeno Chara

Current Boston Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara will, barring significant injury, hit 1000 regular season games with the organisation this season. Essentially, in all likelihood, he will hit 1000 games as even a broken jaw wasn’t seen by Chara to be significant enough to miss more than one play-off game this season just passed.

It’s also reasonable to consider that he is easily second only to Ray Bourque in terms of the number of regular season games he’s played as captain of the Boston Bruins team. Given it’d likely take three full seasons more to overtake Bourque, you’d have to expect the 43 year-old defenseman to settle for second in this case.

Right now, Chara stands at 955 regular season games as the Boston Bruins captain, he should easily manage 45 games this season, given his career-low was 25 games in his 1997-98 rookie year with the New York Islanders.

Last season (ignoring the lock-out shortened season) was the lowest number of regular season games he has played in basically two decades. Even then, it was still a 62 game season followed by a further 23 play-off games.

Zdeno Chara’s longevity speaks for itself; he provides a great role model to the younger defensemen graduating through the Boston Bruins system. The likes of Charlie McAvoy aren’t half the player they are without his mentoring on the ice.

When he does hit that 1000 game milestone, it’ll be a momentous occasion and the Boston Bruins organisation hopefully celebrates it as such.

Perhaps fittingly, the earliest he can achieve the milestone assuming he doesn’t miss a game is Friday, January 10th at TD Garden against the Winnipeg Jets. Game 1001 as a Boston Bruins player would then fall against the team that drafted him, the New York Islanders on their home ice.

Having slowed down and been caught out from time-to-time, this may be the last go around for Zdeno Chara. It’s fair to think his number 33 isn’t far off hanging in the TD Garden rafters and it’ll be a surefire testament to his longevity.

David Krejci

David Krejci is a polarising figure among Boston Bruins fans, however fact is he’s been with the organisation for his whole NHL career thus far. In fact, his 850 games for the team don’t put him that far behind his fellow countryman, Zdeno Chara.

Whilst he will undoubtedly pass the 900-game marker with the Boston Bruins, barring injury or suspension getting in the way, of course, it’s not the milestone we’re looking at.

Just six more goals will see Krejci hit 200 goals with the team. An eighteen-goal year will see him take Woody Dumart‘s spot as sixteenth highest goal-scorer in team history. If he breaks out with twenty-six goals that becomes fifteenth all-time as he’ll also overtake Keith Crowder.

More from Editorials

• Pavel Zacha’s veteran status leading to bigger role in 2023-24
• The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
• Why the Bruins should wait to name a captain until after the season
• 3 players the Bruins can, 3 players could trade, 3 players they shouldn’t trade
• It’s time to offer Jake DeBrusk a contract extension

Whilst hitting fifteenth on that list seems unlikely this year, given he has never topped 23 goals in a season, sixteenth all-time is certainly achievable. It speaks volumes to the way Krejci has kept his head down and ignored the naysayers that seem to like targeting him as a potential trade piece.

Expect also to see him climb above Ken Hodge to eighth all-time points for the Boston Bruins. His current tally of 643 points is just 31 behind Hodge at eighth overall.

Based on his 73-point production last year, he could hit that marker as early as December 18th at home to the Los Angeles Kings. That is of course provided he maintains a 0.90 per game point production. Should he exceed that, we could be looking at this milestone being hit far earlier.

Who knows, especially if he gets a more consistent right wing option to play with as well; maybe we do in fact see his goal scoring pick up and he overtakes Crowder in that regard as well, though at this point it seems unlikely.

Torey Krug

It’s easy to forget that Torey Krug is still only 28 years-old, especially as he’s been part of the Boston Bruins’ runs to both the 2013 and 2019 Stanley Cup Finals.

He too should hit a regular season appearances milestone for the Boston Bruins this coming season, with game 500 easily within his grasp. He currently sits at 462 regular season games in the black and gold, so even if he finds his year shortened for any reason, it’s fair to expect 38 games.

Given he has seldom had a bad season for injuries, it’s all but expected that he’ll be near ever-present as he had been the past five (ignoring last year). In all five of those seasons he managed a minimum of 76 games.

That however, also isn’t the milestone we’re looking toward. The milestone we’re looking at will be moving to sixth overall in points among all Boston Bruins defensemen. If he can match his career-best 59 points in the 2017-18 season, that becomes fifth overall.

In moving to sixth all-time, he’ll find himself climbing above Dallas Smith, who took almost double the number of games to make it that high and Glen Wesley. Doug Mohns is awaiting at fifth overall on 347 points; Krug by comparison sits on 288 presently.

The most achievable goal for Torey Krug should be hitting 300 points as a Boston Bruin; that is all but certain to happen. Based on his production rate of 0.82 point per game last year, it should be a foregone conclusion by November 6th.

That game will be away to the Montreal Canadiens; what better way to celebrate the milestone than to do so against one of the Boston Bruins’ biggest rivals. If it leads to a win on the night, even better!!

Patrice Bergeron

The final player and not surprisingly, yet another key core piece over the past decade with the Boston Bruins is top-line center man, Patrice Bergeron.

He already sits fourth all-time for most appearances as a Boston Bruins player, his 1028 games only 24 behind third all-time and the current General Manager, Don Sweeney. Expect to see some sort of nod as that torch is no doubt passed.

Whether he eventually can contest first and second on that list depends on both how long he continues playing and whether he remains fit and healthy over that time. By season’s end, presuming he is ever-present, he will still be 326 short of Johnny Buyck in second spot on 1436 appearances.

Ray Bourque on 1518 would still be 408 games ahead or the equivalent of an iron-man streak across another five NHL seasons.

If Bergeron follows the example of the current team captain, Zdeno Chara; it’s a goal he can set himself, however you have to question whether he can maintain the level that is required at center to make it. That and whether it’s selfish to hold onto a spot if his form does drop off, especially with the likes of John Beecher likely to be coming through the system by then.

Patrice Bergeron, aside from overtaking Sweeney on the all-time appearances list will undoubtedly also hit the milestone of 500 assists as a Boston Bruin. He needs just eight more to join the company of Bourque, Buyck, Orr, Espoisto, Wayne Cashman and Rick Middleton.

Tracking his assists last season, he was managing 0.72 assists per game playing on a line with Marchand and David Pastrnak. If all remains the same, expect him to tally assist number five hundred on October 30th at home to the San Jose Sharks.

Should Zdeno Chara retire at the completion of this season, also expect him to finally be named captain of the team after being the captain-in-waiting for the large majority of his Boston Bruins career. A worthy milestone to look toward.

All statistics courtesy of QuantHockey.