It was another rather laid-back free agency earlier this month for the Boston Bruins and general manager Don Sweeney. It was another period of low-cost signings, except for inking Tanner Jeannot to a five-year deal for $17 million.
It appears that there was a method to Sweeney's free agent decisions this summer so far and NHL insider Elliotte Friedman explained why the Black and Gold went the route they did.
Elliotte Friedman explains Boston Bruins 2025 free agency spending
On his latest 32 Thoughts Podcast, Friedman explained why Sweeney handed out a lot of short-term contracts and did not commit a lot of money for an extended period of time. He thinks the Bruins have their eyes on the 2026 free agent class.
“If some of these guys who are supposed to be free agents next year (reach free agency), whether they get one or not, I think Boston wants to have the opportunity to take a shot at one of those guys,” Friedman said.“So, if you’ll notice, they didn’t really do much to hamstring themselves in the future. They got Arvidsson on a one-year deal. Traded for him, gave up a late-round pick, one-year deal. Aside from Jeannot, they didn’t take any massive swings.”
If you sit back and look at what happened and look at the bigger picture, you can see that it would make sense. However, that's putting a lot of confidence into some of the big-name free agents actually hitting the open market. That was far from the case this summer, which left the players who did hit free agency turn into an underwhelming class.
Some of the names who could become available are Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild, Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights, Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets, and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers are just some of the big names. Good luck seeing many, if any, of those names hitting the open market. Very unlikely.
There are some other players who could be beneficial additions for the Bruins in the free agent class, but banking on some of those players becoming available is a risky move for a team that is not in a rebuild for the long term, but a quick retool. The opportunity is there to strike big, now it's just a matter of having some players to strike big with, and that's not a guarantee.