As the hockey world held its breath Tuesday Night to see who would own the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, no team was less amused than the Boston Bruins to see the Toronto Maple Leafs win the lottery and claim the coveted number one pick. This now leaves the Bruins waiting another season or two to claim their first-round pick acquired in the Brandon Carlo trade at the 2025 trade deadline.
This unfortunate outcome has forced the Bruins' front office to make some uncomfortable decisions. The reality of the situation is that the Bruins' core members, made up of Jeremy Swayman, Charlie McAvoy, and David Pastrnak, will all be in their early 30s when the Bruins finally get to a draft where they will have three first-round picks. Then the time it will take to develop those picks would take the threesome to their mid-30s. A long time to wait for a core that hasn’t made a Conference Final on its own, without the old guard of Krejci, Bergeron and Marchand.
Don Sweeney needs to decide if they are serious about being Stanley Cup contenders or just playoff contenders. If the decision is the latter, then they will make few to no moves in the offseason and wait for the promising young prospects to become ready and go from there. This offseason looks to be one of the weakest free agent classes we have seen in quite some time, and the top-end players in it, like Alex Tuch, Rasmus Andersson, and Charlie Coyle, will certainly be overpaid based on that weak class. Bad contracts for aging players are something the Bruins cannot afford right now.
The next place you go when you are trying to make your team better is making a trade, and with the number of draft picks the Bruins have, you would think that teams would be willing to play ball. However, I think it will be difficult to talk a team into receiving a first-round pick in two years in return for a high-quality player the Bruins need now. Top-end talent is what every team is after, and teams tend to overvalue their own players.
The place the Bruins should be looking to make a real change is to offer sheeting a player who is a restricted free agent and is unsigned by their current team. The names that fall into this category are vast and outweigh just about all of the unrestricted free agent options.
We have seen successful offer sheets very recently, specifically with Edmonton and St. Louis. The Blues decided to offer two players from Edmonton, Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. Edmonton decided to take the compensatory picks from the Blues and let the players go. Broberg and Holloway have proven to be part of the new core St. Louis is building, while the Oilers really could have used a puck-moving defenseman like Broberg and a speedy winger like Holloway. Both former first-round picks, and both proven NHLers. Edmonton is surely kicking themself after this one.
The potential suitors
The biggest fish in the pond of RFAs is former first overall pick Connor Bedard. He is coming off his first point-per-game season and seems to be coming into his own as a number one center in the NHL. There doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency for Bedard to sign anything now, and the fact that he is still unsigned is somewhat telling. Several young players around the league have signed long-term deals with their current team before their entry-level deal expired.
Bedard not signing may be a sign of the team and player not being aligned, or just a negotiating tactic. Regardless, if I were the Bruins, I would keep a watchful eye on that situation. Bedard is a highly skilled player who would change the way you look at the center position immediately.
There is a duo of Anaheim Ducks who are also entering their restricted free agent summers who could be intriguing as well: Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier. Leo Carlsson is having his coming-out party this Stanley Cup playoffs, while Cutter Gauthier netted the first 40-goal season of his career. One would think that it is a no-brainer for Anaheim to re-sign both players. However, the Ducks have a plethora of young talent who are all going to need to be paid, and all need to be paid BIG money.
Their GM, Pat Verbeek, has proven that he is as cutthroat as there is when it comes to negotiating contracts with his players. Most recently, Mason McTavish this past season. The Bruins would instantly boost their top-six forward group with either player. I personally think that it is much more likely that Carlsson gets signed before Gauthier. An interesting note, Gauthier is a former Boston College Eagle, and it is no secret that Don Sweeney loves his players from The Heights.
The most likely of all the options for the black and gold is the 25-year-old winger for the Vegas Golden Knights, Pavel Dorofeyev. The Russian native has accumulated over 230 NHL games while potting 92 career goals. The reason he is the most likely player is that he is the cheapest option out of the high-end players who are eligible. He is also on a Vegas squad that is constantly in “win now” mode, and unfortunately for them, there are casualties to that mindset in a salary cap world.
Dorofeyev looks to be one of them, and the Bruins should make a push for this player. Another elite-level goalscorer to add alongside David Pastrnak and to a forward group that struggled to put the puck in the net when it really mattered most.
Jason Robertson is another name that has been floated. I am not including him as a potential option, only since there have been reports that Dallas is going to do everything in their power to give him what he wants and keep him as a Star.
If the Bruins make moves on the margins and decide to stand pat, I think it would be a major disservice not only to the fans, but also to their core group who have stuck around for the better years of their career with a belief that they would win the ultimate prize. The team owes it to them to overextend a bit and try to compete in the short term, while still trusting the plan you have built for the long term with prospects who are close to breaking through.
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