It's that time of year again. The Boston Bruins training camp has officially begun. While Wednesday was just media and off-ice meetings, Thursday the Black and Gold take the ice once again at Warrior Ice Arena. The Bruins then face off against the Washington Capitals on Sunday to kick off the preseason, just nine days before they open the season at home against the New York Rangers on September 29.
A Closer Look at the Roster
The Bruins are bringing 49 players to training camp this year. Those 49 players consist of 27 forwards, 16 defensemen, and six goalies. Familiar faces from the 2025-2026 team, as well as some new faces, like the recently acquired JJ Peterka or Ivan Ivan, make up the 49 men battling it out. Fresh blood from the rookies trying to prove their spots or join the big leagues, like Dan Locmelis or Michael DiPietro. It will be an interesting battle for a lot of the spots on the big league roster.
The Bruins have also had an interesting approach once again, where they will have no professional tryouts happening during training camp. They did it last year as well, and it will be interesting to see if they decide to go with one, since they could have picked up a piece or two that they did not get to acquire during the offseason.
The main roster consists of 23 spots, breaking down to 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goalies. While anything can happen during training camp, there are some spots that are more than likely already decided. David Pastrnak, Jeremy Swayman, and Charlie McAvoy just to name three spots, which brings down the spots available to 12 forwards, six defensemen, and just one goalie spot on the roster. Yes, 13, seven, and two is only 22 players; the Bruins could always elect to bring on another forward or defenseman before the end of training camp.
The roster has been released, so lets take a sneak peek.
The Forwards
The Forwards battling it out this season are: Joey Abate, Attilio Biasca, Wyatt Bongiovanni, Riley Duran, Mikey Eyssimont, Brendan Gaunce, Morgan Geekie, James Hagens, Brian Halonen, Ivan Ivan, Tanner Jeannot, Mark Kastelic, Marat Khusnutdinov, Sean Kuraly, Elias Lindholm, Dans Locmelis, Fraser Minten, Casey Mittelstadt, Navrin Mutter, David Pastrnak, JJ Peterka, Matthew Poitras, Lukas Reichel, Jake Schmaltz, Alex Steeves, Kalle Vaisanen, Pavel Zacha
Quite a few returners are coming from last season, which will make it very interesting on how they decide who to bring onto the main roster. Returners alone are 13 skaters, and they packed a punch last season. Fans know that, no matter what baring an injury like the one mentioned before, David Pastrnak is getting one of the 13 spots on the roster. He is currently still in a two-man battle with Charlie McAvoy over who should be captain this upcoming season.
What is going to be interesting these next 13 days is that the Providence Bruins training camp starts next Monday, which only gives the younger less experience players just four days to prove that they have what it takes to make it to the big leagues. The main outliner is Matthew Poitras, while right before the announcement of the roster signed a one-year, two-way contract, which does not seem promising for his big-league spot. James Hagens is the other rookie prospect to watch this coming training camp, after scoring four goals over the time at rookie camp and during the prospect showcase.
The Defenseman
The defenseman are: Jonathan Aspirot, Will Borgen, Frederic Brunet, Connor Clifton, Ty Gallagher, Max Guenette, Jordan Harris, Loke Johansson, Henri Jokiharju, Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei, Charlie McAvoy, Tobie Paquette-Bisson, Billy Sweezey, Max Wanner, Nikita Zadorov.
Going into training camp, based on the names on the list, there is a strong feeling of who the seven defenseman the Bruins will dress for the season. Zadorov was one of the biggest impact players in terms of playing like a Bruin. He plays hard to the puck and throws his body around, and is not afraid to fight someone as he once again lead the league in penalty minutes.
McAvoy will join the team during training camp, but then will be sitting for the first six games of the season, as he serves his suspension for slashing Zach Wheeler in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. His suspension will most likely not play a part in the determination of if he gets one of the seven spots available.
The Goalies
The goalies battling in training camp are: Luke Cavallin, Michael DiPietro, Max Lundgren, Jiri Patera, Jeremy Swayman, Simon Zajicek.
This one is going to be an interesting battle for the backup goalie, unless Jeremy Swayman just completely falls apart during camp. With trading away Joonas Korpisalo, fans most likely have a feeling that it is finally Michael DiPietro's time to shine in the National Hockey League. He has been on fire in the American Hockey League, winning the Best Goaltender in the League back in 2024-2025, and bringing home the Most Valuable Player, as well as Best Goals Against Average and Save Percentage last season. It is basically DiPietro's spot to lose coming into training camp.
New Year, New Expectations
The Bruins come into this year hoping to piggyback off of last year's bounce-back campaign. The team finished 45-27-20, winning 12 more games than they did in 2024-2025. They will once again be under head coach Marco Strum, who enters his second year as an NHL head coach. This year also brings new challenges with the new 84-game regular season, rather than the typical 82-game schedule. It will be interesting to see how the Bruins plan around that and see how they excel throughout the season.
The Bruins will also be announcing their 15th captain this season, spending all of last year with three Alternate captains. The battle is currently between Pastrnak and McAvoy, with the dial leaning more towards Pastrnak due to his years with the team, as well as the way he led the team last year and in 2024, even with Marchand as captain.
Only time will tell what happens this season, but it is finally good to once again have hockey back.
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