The Boston Bruins are heading into a pivotal 2025-26 season with a lot more. questions than answers. Don Sweeney hasn't addressed some of the club's biggest needs and now they need some players to step up and have a breakout season. Here are three players that the Black and Gold need to have a breakout season this winter.
Three Boston Bruins breakout candidates crucial to their success
1. Michael DiPietro- G
The up-and-coming goalie, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for former leading Providence prospect Jack Studnicka back in 2022 and has flashed as a starting goaltender in Providence since then. This year, with Boston in what is effectively a retooling year in which they aim to build themselves back into a contender, solidifying the backend beyond just Jeremy Swayman would serve to be critical to help alleviate some of the workload from the young goaltender.
This past season, he posted a .927 save percentage, good for third in the AHL, and earned himself an All-Star selection as well. DiPietro was rewarded this offseason with a two-year deal worth $1,625,000 in total, demonstrating the team’s belief in his abilities to push for a potential backup spot while competing against Joonas Korpisalo, who could be a possible cap casualty if DiPietro does, in fact, win the job. If DiPietro can prove to be a reliable backup for Jeremy Swayman, it would certainly do the team a lot of favors.
2. Matthew Poitras- C/W
With newly drafted James Hagens not poised to join the Bruins, fresh from his seventh overall selection in this offseason’s draft, the Bruins are in clear need of an injection of skill and speed down the middle of the lineup that can help the team’s scoring woes of this past year. Whether his natural position in the league will end up being as a winger or center is still to be decided; however, if Poitras’ playmaking prowess can continue to develop and shine as training camp and preseason loom, he could become an assist machine for the Bruins if given the opportunity.
His spot will need to be earned, as the fresh wave of free agents GM Don Sweeney brought in will occupy plentiful space in the bottom six of the lineup. Time will tell what head coach Marco Sturm thinks of the 21-year-old, but his breakout could work wonders for a Bruins team in need of spry talent.
3. Mason Lohrei- D
The towering, slick puck handling defenseman’s emergence could be the offensive engine that this Bruins team desperately needs on the power play and even strength. After defensive cornerstone Charlie McAvoy went down for the year with a nagging shoulder injury following the Four Nations Faceoff, Lohrei was given a promotion from the second power play unit to the first. The offensive talent is certainly there, as he put up 33 points in 77 games, including 28 assists which led all blueliners, and was the sixth highest point total for the team overall.
With Hampus Lindholm and McAvoy returning this upcoming season, Lohrei can continue to develop his defensive game while solidifying a spot in the top four of the Bruin’s defense corps, allowing his offensive game to blossom as more stay at home options such as Nikita Zadorov take care of business net front and in transition. If the stars align the way the coaching staff hopes it will, Lohrei could very well be this new iteration of Bruin’s successor to Torey Krug.