By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter / X @RyanJBosworth
On March 7th, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney shocked the hockey world by trading team captain Brad Marchand to their Atlantic Division rivals, the Florida Panthers.
What upset fans most wasn’t just the loss of a franchise icon, but the return: a conditional 2027 second-round draft pick. The pick could become a first-rounder in 2027 or 2028, but only if two conditions were met — Florida had to win two playoff rounds, and Marchand had to play in at least 50% of their playoff games.
Florida defeated Tampa Bay in the first round and Toronto in the second, with Brad Marchand appearing in every game. The trade conditions were officially met after Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against Carolina, as Marchand only needed to dress for the game to fulfill the requirement. Shortly after, PuckPedia confirmed that the conditional 2027 second-round pick had converted into a 2027 first-round pick, now transferred from Florida to Boston.
With the addition of another first-rounder, the Bruins now hold a significant amount of draft capital. Over the next three drafts — 2025, 2026, and 2027 — Boston owns five first-round picks and four second-round picks.
With a recent surplus in draft capital, the Bruins have a couple of different options. They can use the picks in the drafts for prospects, trade those picks for “ready now” players they can use to bolster their roster, or a mix of both.
It’s more than likely they’re going to hang on to their seventh overall pick in the 2025 draft, as general manager Don Sweeney was seen scouting draft-eligible players such as Roger McQueen and Caleb Desnoyers, but any of the other four first-round picks could be apart of a package to acquire a more NHL-ready player for their roster, whether it be via trade or the restricted free agent offer sheet route.
The NHL recently released its RFA compensation for the 2025 offseason, and the Bruins are eligible across all annual average values. This means they can offer a player between a league minimum and over $11,700,193 if they choose to go that route.
Ty Anderson recently posted an article covering seven restricted free agents the Bruins could target with their newly acquired draft capital. Among the names of RFAs Ty mentioned are Will Cuylle, Mason McTavish, Luke Evangelista, and Kaapo Kakko.
All four of these players are young and are on inexpensive contracts, and depending on what the Bruins offer them for a contract, the draft compensation wouldn’t be costly, as first-round draft picks aren’t required as compensation until a team offers a player an annual salary of $4,680,077 – $7,020,113, and if they opt to go that route, it allows them to both utilize the picks in their respective drafts while also acquiring some ‘ready-now’ NHL help on the roster.
July 1st is the date in which teams can offer-sheet restricted free agents in the NHL, and teams can resign their restricted free agents before that date, so the list of available players is likely to change.
With that in mind, not every restricted free agent will be signed before that date, so if the Bruins choose to go the offer-sheet route, there will be names available that would positively impact their roster, and they have plenty of draft capital to both utilize the picks and offer-sheet or trade for players.
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