The Boston Bruins have a unique chance this deep in the offseason to still make a big splash and improve their offensive depth. Free agency was seen as a bust for most of the fanbase, as the team added plenty of bottom-six players but did little to address their biggest need: scoring. Lucky for Don Sweeney, he has the chance to make that right by using some of his draft pick capital and signing one of these three players who are still on the board.
The Bruins could be reluctant to part with any of their draft picks, but if what they said at the end of last season is true, the team is still looking to contend, and the 2025 draft and trade deadline teardown helped them improve their prospect deficiencies. If the price is right, Sweeney shouldn't be reluctant to pull the trigger.
However, the Bruins do have to be cautious of one thing. If signing a player that would require sending first-round picks the other way, Sweeney has to calculate the risk of some of those picks being very high with the current state of the roster. Considering Sweeney thinks he did a great job in free agency, that could be a slight issue and one that leads to an even bigger mishap if they gift one of these players' teams a franchise-altering draft pick.
Marco Rossi
Marco Rossi should be the target for the Bruins and the hope is they've already at least inquired about the player. The Minnesota Wild are still not in the greatest salary cap position after getting out from under the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter buyouts and have some big contracts on the horizon to sign.
Rossi isn't exactly happy with the organization right now after his fourth line demotion in last season's playoffs, and might be looking for a fresh start. He'd have no worries about being on the fourth-line in Boston, as right now they have 10 of those players and barely a handful of guys for the top six.
Sweeney's best bet is to buy low on Rossi and attempt to move out Casey Mittelstadt or Pavel Zacha, as Rossi would be another piece that could complement the young core that is beginning to form.
A future of James Hagens, David Pastrnak, Rossi, Elias Lindholm, Fraser Minten, Matt Poitras, Morgan Geekie, and whichever young players break through starts to look like a solid start for the Bruins' offensive retool.
Mason McTavish
A contract for Lukas Dostal came and went this past week, and there are still no talks of the Anaheim Ducks signing Mason McTavish. The Ducks are playing with fire the longer they leave him on the market, as it'd be malpractice for teams not to at least start inquiring about the chances of an offer sheet.
It's hard to believe that the Ducks would let a player like McTavish go. The deal he would sign would give Anaheim a substantial draft pick compensation package, but the Ducks are shifting towards win-now mode, and McTavish would be a big piece of that.
It'd take away many of their draft picks, but McTavish is the type of player to elevate the Bruins from a lottery team to a fringe playoff team, considering their need for another center.
Alex Laferriere
The cheapest of the three options and a draft pick compensation package that would be easier to handle for a team that should be going through a mini-rebuild. A deal for Alex Laferriere might need to be higher to get him away from the Los Angeles Kings, but his contract talks dragging this far into the summer raises some questions.
It seems like the Kings are high on him and willing to spend big to keep him around, so exactly how much is Laferriere asking for? This feels like it should've been an easy deal to get done for the Kings, and the delay tells me Laferriere either wants out of Los Angeles or his agent is asking for an astronomical amount of money.
Either way, Laferriere is one of the safer, cheaper options, as a deal at around $4 million per year should get it done, which would only cost the Bruins a second-round pick. His points total rose from 23 to 42 in his second season, and it seems like his development is on an upward trajectory.