How many Professional Tryout level players are too many? The Boston Bruins will already have an abundance of battles at this year's training camp to narrow the roster down to 23, as there are 30-35 players who could make the team. It isn't necessarily a good thing, as most of those players are ones who will be battling for third and fourth line spots up front and bottom pairing time on the backend.
Apparently, that isn't stopping the Bruins' front office, as Don Sweeney alluded to at the team's annual golf tournament, that there are still some pending free agents who the team could be looking at to bring in on a PTO.
Sweeney on the Bruins potentially bringing in more players on PTOs before the start of training camp:
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) September 9, 2025
"We're monitoring that market right now. We're perfectly fine, but we have spoken to some players that that we feel would provide even more competition amongst our group."
Whether or not you agree that the Bruins should be bringing in any more players who are fringe NHLers, it's still an interesting question of what kind of players Sweeney might be targeting. The Bruins have plenty of competition in the forward group, so another defenseman to add to the seventh defenseman mix seems like the most logical answer.
""We're monitoring that market right now. We're perfectly fine, but we have spoken to some players that we feel would provide even more competition amongst our group.""Don Sweeney
There is one player who Bruins fans might like to see in camp that hasn't signed a contract yet this season. Matt Grzelcyk left the Bruins for a fresh start last season and landed in Pittsburgh, where he had a solid year with 40 points in 82 games.
Surprisingly, no team has seen the value in him, especially after he was able to show that he could stay healthy over a full season. That was one of the biggest knocks for the undersized defenseman after a couple of seasons with the Bruins, where he became banged up in the postseason and unable to take the physical toll.
The Bruins already have some competition on defense in Jordan Harris, Victor Soderstrom, and Michael Callahan for the last spot. However, Sweeney could throw the Boston native a lifeline here and allow him to showcase his stuff in camp. Maybe he steals that seventh spot, or maybe he shows enough to get another job. Regardless, it's one of the only PTOs that Bruins fans might accept as the team enters training camp.