The busiest time in the NHL offseason is about to kick off on Friday night with the NHL Entry Draft in Los Angeles. This season, the Boston Bruins hold the seventh pick and are in desperate need of a player who will be a foundation piece in the future, if not as early as this fall. That's very unlikely, but stranger things have happened.
After the draft, all eyes will shift toward free agency, which kicks off July 1, and there are a handful of needs the Bruins have, and this is where general manager Don Sweeney will look to make up some ground in retooling his roster for 2025-26. With that said, let's take a look at where the roster currently stands with players under contract for next season and where the holes are that need to be filled.
Bruins current forwards
Left Wing | Center | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
Elias Lindholm | David Pastrnak | |
Pavel Zacha | Casey Mittelstadt | |
Matthew Poitras | ||
Fraser Minten | Mark Kastelic |
As you can see, there is a ton of work that needs to be done with the forward grouping for the Black and Gold. Morgan Geekie, a restricted free agent (RFA), remains unsigned, although Sweeney thinks a deal will get done, while our RFAs among the forward grouping include John Beecher, Jakub Lauko, and Marat Khusnutdinov. They all can't be brought back, and some tough decisions are looming, but one thing is clear: the Bruins need top-six and even bottom-six additions from outside the organization in the next week.
Bruins current defensemen
Left Defense | Right Defense |
|---|---|
Hampus Lindholm | Charlie McAvoy |
Nikita Zadorov | |
Mason Lohrei | Andrew Peeke |
This grouping is going to be interesting to see how things play out over the next week. Henri Jokiharju was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline, and he is an unrestricted free agent. Sweeney said on Wednesday that there is interest in bringing him back, which may not be a bad move given how well he played with Zadorov over the last six weeks of the season.
It would not be surprising to see Sweeney look for a free agent addition this summer, and he hinted at that Wednesday. The right side should be the priority for an addition, but if Jokiharju does re-sign, does that make Andrew Peeke available in a trade?
Bruins current goaltenders
Goaltenders |
|---|
Jeremy Swayman |
Joonas Korpisalo |
You might be thinking, yeah, no kidding, we know who the Bruins' goalies are. However, things could get interesting here with Korpisalo, who made it known that he didn't play as much as he wanted. His agent did too. Now, do his comments trigger a trade, which would free up more cap space for Sweeney? Signing Michael DiPietro or Brandon Bussi might be the cheaper way to go as Swayman's backup next season.
Overall, the next week is going to be very interesting in terms of how Sweeney and the front office build the roster for the 2025-26 season, which is expected to be a retool on the fly. Buckle up for what could be an interesting next week, plus in Boston.