Last year, injuries took away two of the Boston Bruins' top defensemen, Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm. Then, in March at the trade deadline, general manager Don Sweeney traded Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a package that included prospect Fraser Minten.
When Lindholm went down in mid-November, little did he or anyone else know that his season would be over. Then, in February, in the 4 Nations Faceoff, McAvoy was lost for the season with an injury, and at that point, it became clear that the Black and Gold were not going to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Carlo was traded.
The losses on the backend as the season went along took its toll on the healthy players, Mason Lohrei, Andrew Peeke, and Nikita Zadorov, to name a few. If the Bruins are going to have a bounce-back season, then first-year coach Marco Sturm said one of them needs to be a leader.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm points to Nikita Zadorov as someone who needs to be a leader in 2025-26
Meeting with the media on Tuesday before the Bruins shipped off to New York for their second preseason game against the New York Rangers, Sturm said that with McAvoy and Lindholm back healthy, Boston is going to need their big defenseman to step up.
“We need him this year,'' said Sturm. "We need him to be a leader, be a presence on the ice, and be one of the better D moving forward.”
Without a doubt, things didn't go anywhere close to the way that Zadorov or the Bruins wanted. Losing two key defensemen by February and then Carlo a few weeks later took its toll on the group as a whole. After dealing Carlo, Sweeney acquired Henri Jokiharju from the Buffalo Sabres, and he was paired with Zadorov, which actually had Zadorov play better.
They are paired early in camp and could be a pairing that helps the group this year after Boston re-signed Jokiharju. There is no doubt that a better Nikita Zadorov will help the Bruins immensely this year, which they hope ends with another trip to the postseason after missing last year.