Once free agency opened on July 1, the Boston Bruins lost some key players at both forward and on defense. Some of it was a surprise, but some of them were not as the writing had been on the wall for some time.
This summer has been circled on GM Don Sweeney's calendar for a while with a lot of cap space he had to work with and he didn't waste any time using it. He made two big additions, center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov while sprinkling in some depth signings.
Just how third-year head coach Jim Montgomery ends up putting the pieces together once training camp opens in September remains to be seen. We recently broke down the Bruins' forward lines post-free agency and now it's time to do it with the defensemen.
Predicting Boston Bruins way-too-early defensive pairings
Left Defense | Right Defense |
|---|---|
Hampus Lindholm | Charlie McAvoy |
Nikita Zadorov | Brandon Carlo |
Mason Lohrei | Andrew Peeke |
Ok, so this is rather pretty straightforward, no? A big reason for letting Matt Grzelcyk leave for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Derek Forbort to leave for the Vancouver Canucks was because of the strides that Mason Lohrei made and the way he played in the playoffs. He proved that he's ready to be a full-time NHL blueliner. Andrew Peeke, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets at the trade deadline will battle it out with Parker Wortherspoon for the third spot on the right side, but we'll give the early edge to Peeke.
The top-four is pretty straight forward as there can be a lot of mixing and matching by Montgomery depending on matchup and situations during a game. In fact, Lohrei is someone who could move up the lineup if needed and he provides the Black and Gold with a good puck-moving defenseman.
On paper, this seems like a group that should be more than capable of playing well in front of Jeremy Swayman (assuming he signs a contract) or whoever is between the pipes in 2024-25.