By: Ryan Jainchill | Follow me on Twitter / X @Jainchill_Ryan
The Boston Bruins’ defensive core, outside of Charlie McAvoy, has not produced enough offense this season. While at the personnel level, the structure of the d-core may appear to favor the defensive side, the totality of their defense should contribute more to the offensive side.
Outside of McAvoy, who is tied for third on the team in points with 6-39-45, the rest of the Bruins’ defense, all 10 who have appeared in at least one game this season, have combined for 18-78-96. Mason Lohrei has the second most points from the backend, posting 6-17-23, a 22-point differential from McAvoy. After missing the majority of last season with a leg injury, Hampus Lindholm is right behind Lohrei with 4-17-21.
Those two have recently been paired and get top-four minutes but have not generated much offense despite their talents. When they became a pair in January, both players produced at the start but have since struggled to score and generate offense. Dating back to the Bruins’ overtime victory over the Nashville Predators on January 27th, Lindholm has 1-4-5 and Lohrei has 0-1-1, with the latter’s lone point coming on the former’s lone goal.
After Lindholm and Lohrei, Nikita Zadorov has 1-17-18 in his second season in Boston. Four years ago in Calgary, he had a career-high 14 goals, and while his value is not in his offensive production, scoring only once this season is a far cry from that. While he had a similar number of assists to last season (18 in 2024-25), he found the back of the net four times (two of which were empty-netters).
Andrew Peeke has surprised many with 4-8-12 in 60 games, two goals off his career-high six in 2022-23. While he is not far from his career-high in points, 17, set last season, he has been ice-cold from a points perspective since his four-goal outburst in December. In the 19 games since the calendar year flipped to 2026, he has 0-3-3, two assists of which came in the same game. Peeke is not the guy you ask for offense, but if December was any indication, he can generate offense by getting pucks to the net, which needs to reappear.
In his first full season in Boston, Henri Jokiharju has yet to find the back of the net, currently sitting at 0-9-9. After six seasons of scoring at least three goals, the Finnish defenseman has not scored in a Bruins uniform in what is now 54 games. While he has been a healthy scratch at times, his ability to put up assists is evident, but the Bruins need him to produce even more so he can stay in the lineup and contribute to the offensive side of the game.
Jonathan Aspirot has been a pleasant surprise for Boston. Making his NHL debut this season at 26, Aspirot put up solid numbers for a defensive defenseman in the six AHL seasons prior to this year, topping out at 33 points in 2023-24. To his credit, he is up to 2-8-10 while playing alongside McAvoy and as of late, he has 0-7-7 in his last ten. However, for a top-pair guy playing with McAvoy, you could expect a little bit more, given the five-on-five minutes he gets.
Looking around the league, many of the teams succeeding this far into the season are getting substantial production from the backend. The Columbus Blue Jackets, the team two points behind Boston for the last wild card spot, have four defenseman with over 25 points, including Zach Werenski, who has 66. The Montreal Canadiens, the team Boston is two points behind, have three defenseman with over 30 points and one with 20, Alexandre Carrier, who has seven goals, more than any Bruins defenseman.
The main reason the defensive core does not produce is the lack of shots on goal. No Bruins defenseman has more than 80 shots on net, with McAvoy, Lindholm, and Zadorov each having 79. The biggest disparity comes in attempted shots, with all three of those players being close to or above 200 for the season. This means their shots are not getting through enough, and thus, do not become scoring chances.
As a unit, the Bruins have only had four power-play goals from defensemen this season out of the 48 they have scored. Lohrei leads with two, and McAvoy and Lindholm each have one, which is another reason why overall point totals seem low. While the unit’s overall structure is not built around shots from the point, getting more production while a man up from the backend goes a long way.
Point totals are not everything with a defenseman. Often, they would be the recipient of a tertiary assist if it were awarded on the stat sheet. But with the Bruins, their defensemen have struggled to generate chances from the backend by getting shots on net, creating rebounds, or scoring. For this to change, shot totals need to increase, specifically shots on goal. This allows the Bruins to reap the benefits of traffic and loose change, boosting their defensemen’s production and helping the team score more.
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