Boston Bruins fans don't need me to tell them that nothing is guaranteed with the future of this franchise. David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Jeremy Swayman still have some great years left in them, and they could catch lightning in a bottle with the supporting pieces around them to make one more run. However, unless JJ Peterka's ceiling is much higher than we think, the Bruins likely need another star piece or two for this core to win a Stanley Cup.
Boston's front office is trying to answer which players are coming to carry the torch. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara, and Tuukka Rask passed it to this willing trio to carry on the culture, but as of now, there isn't a core group of players ready to take the torch and run the next leg of the journey.
James Hagens believes he is one of the players who will do it, and there's no reason to doubt that as of now. Fans weren't happy with some of the decisions made with their top prospect last season once he signed his entry-level deal, but it feels like Marco Sturm is the right coach to bring him along slowly and prepare him to be that player to carry on the culture instead of putting the pressure on him to be one of the team's leading scorers next season.
Who is up next for the Bruins?
Hagens is a good start to the future core, while people forget that Peterka is still only 24 and could still be contributing to this team's offense once Pastrnak is past his prime. As long as Sweeney doesn't use Dean Letourneau as trade bait in the next year and allows him to come make an impact, potentially as early as the end of this season when his Boston College season ends, the big man looks like he can be a key piece of that forward core as well.
We already know Fraser Minten is going to be a great two-way player after his performance last season, and Marat Khusnutdinov showed flashes of being a reliable middle-six forward. By all accounts, with players like Cooper Simpson and Will Zellers still needing to show their NHL upside, the future forward group looks quite good.
McAvoy and Swayman's future replacements are likely the bigger worry. The Bruins' blueline currently features just one player under 27, and there are no guarantees that Mason Lohrei will be on the team by the end of this season. The same goes for the 27-year-old, as Henri Jokiharju is also being thrown around as trade bait.
Frederic Brunet and Loke Johansson are promising defenders, but far from a sure thing. Michael DiPietro will get his first full-time look in the NHL this season, but he is the same age as Swayman. The Bruins hope that Yuri Ivanov is the future there, but he is definitely going to be a work in progress.
Are the future forwards good enough to lead the core? There is certainly some optimism there, but Don Sweeney will definitely need to find some more defense and goaltending depth in the pipeline. The good news is that Sweeney's blind spot of skilled forwards is already building up, and his bread-and-butter of more blue-collar defensive players is something fans shouldn't worry too much about him finding.
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