Over the 100 years of Boston Bruins hockey, there have been some good free agent signings and some bad free agent signings. Some signs were not big at the time, but they played a pivotal role in some seasons of the Black and Gold in what was either a championship season or a record season in different ways.
With that said, here are the five best free agent signings for the Boston Bruins under different general managers.
5. Mark Recchi
Acquired at the trade deadline in 2009 from the Tampa Bay Lightning, Mark Recchi was an underrated player for the Bruins for the rest of the season and the 2009-10 season. Boston was able to bring him back on a one-year deal for the 2010-11 season with a cap hit of $1 million, and what a final season he had.
In 81 regular-season games, he had 14 goals and 34 assists, and then in the postseason, he had five goals and nine assists in 25 games in helping the Bruins capture the Stanley Cup in seven games over the Vancouver Canucks. He averaged 16:09 a night in the playoffs, and following the win, he announced his retirement. What a way to go out.
4. Linus Ullmark
In the summer of 2021, Boston general manager Don Sweeney made a surprising signing of goalie Linus Ullmark, who was with the Buffalo Sabres, an Atlantic Division lateral move for the Swedish netminder. He inked a four-year, $20 million contract.
After splitting time with Jeremy Swayman, Ullmark had a historic 2022-23 season between the pipes in Boston. He went 40-6-1 with a .938 save percentage and a 1.89 goals against average. He ended up winning the Vezina Trophy that season as a runaway winner for a team that set the NHL record for wins and points in a regular season.
He was traded to the Ottawa Senators in June of 2024, splitting up a solid goaltending duo, but when he was signed three years earlier, not many people saw his rise in Boston the way it happened.
3. Tim Thomas
Goaltending wins championships, and Tim Thomas is proof of that. After playing overseas, he caught on with the Bruins for the 2005-26 season and five years later, he led them to the Stanley Cup. In the 2010-11 season which he won a battle over Tuukka Rask, Thomas went 35-19-1 in the regular season with a 2.36 goals against average and a .920 save percentage. Then the playoff began.
Thomas was even better in the postseason, sporting a 16-9 record with a 1.98 goals against average and a .943 save percentage with four shutouts. He turned back all 37 shots from Vancouver in Game 7 to clinch the Cup, and he combined to make 73 saves on 75 shots over the final two games.
Thomas was so dominant that season that, aside from back boning a Stanley Cup championship run, he became the first goalie to win the Vezina Trophy, the Stanley Cup, and the Conn Smythe Trophy in the same season in 36 years.
2. Marc Savard
What a 2006 offseason the Bruins had. They signed two key players that summer, the first being Marc Savard, who signed a four-year $20 million deal. One of the better playmakers, Savard turned into the ultimate playmaker with the Black and Gold during his tenure in Boston.
Savard ended up playing five years in Boston, the most with any team he played for, and in 304 regular-season games, he had 231 goals and 305 assists, with just over 100 coming on the power play. His career was cut short because of concussions as he only played 25 games in his final season in 2010-11 with the Bruins, with two goals and 10 points. Even though he was not able to play in the postseason, he was still honored and celebrated with his teammates when they won the Cup.
1. Zdeno Chara
Is there really any doubt as to who would hold the top spot? Zdeno Chara might go down as the greatest free agent signing ever for the Boston Bruins, to date, anyway. Signed the same summer as Savard, Chara was one of the best shutdown defensemen to play the game, as his long reach frustrated opponents.
The 6-foot-9 Chara played 14 seasons in Boston after playing with the Senators and won the All-Star Game Skills Competition five times in the hardest shot event. His hardest shot registered at 108.8 miles per hour. Good luck to the goalies trying to stop that. He won the Norris Trophy in 2009.
No Bruins fans will forget the 2019 Stanley Cup Final when he played just days after breaking his jaw against the St. Louis Blues in Game 4. The standing ovation he got at the TD Garden ahead of Game 5 will always send chills down the spines of fans.