One year ago, the Boston Bruins entered training camp under the direction of first-year head coach Marco Sturm with a lot more questions than answers. It felt like a reset by the front office, as going to take a couple of years to rebound before they were back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
As it turns out, that wasn't the case.
In fact, the Black and Gold were a team that surprised many after a slow start and racked up 100 points to secure the first Eastern Conference wild-card spot when the dust settled on the 82-game regular season. That got them a matchup with the Atlantic Division champion Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo proved to be too big a mountain for the Black and Gold to climb, and they were bounced in six games.
Looking to make a second straight postseason appearance this upcoming season, compared to other teams in the East, it doesn't feel like the Bruins have made enough moves to keep up with the rest of the conference. However, the lack of moves didn't hurt their preseason power ranking with Bleacher Report.
Bleacher Report has surprising preseason ranking for the Bruins
Lyle Richardson dropped his preseason ranking for the 2026-27 season, and he had the Bruins coming in at No. 13, which is a rather surprising landing spot. For the record, six Eastern Conference teams were ranked higher than Boston, but given the lack of offseason moves, it was a surprising ranking.
The Bruins brought in JJ Peterka in a trade with the Utah Mammoth, while also acquiring defenseman Will Borgen from the New York Rangers. They also signed free-agent defenseman Connor Clifton, bringing him back after stints with the Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Borgen and Clifton are added to a massive logjam on the blueline that will have to be figured out when training camp begins in a couple of weeks.
One thing that the first-round playoff loss to Buffalo showed was that the Bruins roster was good enough last season to make the playoffs, but not built for a deep run into the spring. Instead, they were good enough to get in, but their flaws were exposed over the series.
Now, the Bruins didn't go into a full-blown rebuild, but a retool. However, as Richardson mentioned, the Bruins bought into Sturm's system, and after the New Year last season, they quickly rose in the standings in the East. That's what's going to be key going into Sturm's second season behind the bench: does he still have the buy-in from the roster, and will the system be successful for a second straight season? It's going to have to be, as the rest of the division and conference got better, which means the path to the postseason this upcoming season is going to be very difficult.
Are the offseason moves made good enough to get in the eight-team field in the East this season? That remains to be seen, but if not, then Don Sweeney's job could be in trouble after the season.
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