By: Neil Simmons | Follow me on Twitter / X: @NSimmz
The Boston Bruins enter the 2026 NHL offseason in a unique and pivotal position for the franchise. They’re coming off a 45-win, 100-point season, a 24-point improvement from a year ago, and a return to the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, their first-round loss to Buffalo exposed glaring holes in the roster and proved there is still a sizable gap between them and the true Cup contenders in the Eastern Conference.
On the other hand, for the first time in a while, they have a lot of flexibility moving forward. With the rising salary cap, Boston has over $15m in cap space and valuable assets at its disposal, including a substantially improved prospect pool and five first-round picks over the next three years.
The question is, where should the Bruins go from here? Stay the course on the retool and build up the pipeline? Use the cap space to sign a big free agent? Flip some of those picks and prospects in a hockey trade? The Black n’ Gold staff put our heads together to brainstorm some ideas:
Neil Simmons – First and foremost, I’m gauging the market for Joonas Korpisalo and offloading him as soon as possible for whatever value I can get. If there isn’t any interest in the Finn, I’m buying him out of the last two years of his contract, eating the $1.5m and $750k dead cap hits (per PuckPedia), and giving Michael DiPietro a well-earned call-up as the full-time NHL backup.
From there, I’m calling the new Vancouver brass and checking the asking price for Filip Hronek, my preferred target to bolster the right-side defense. Hard to imagine they’d let him go for anything less than a 1st round pick, and probably more, so I’m offering the 2026 1st as the headliner of a trade package. His $7.25m AAV would eat a good chunk out of our cap space unless there’s retention or someone goes the other way, which is why I’d include Mason Lohrei ($3.2m AAV) to reduce the added salary cost.
My last move would be to offer sheet Mavrik Bourque out of Dallas. The 24-year-old center is coming off a 20-21-41 season in all 82 games with the Stars on their third line, buried behind their loaded forward group. Dallas is in a cap crunch and already has to worry about Jason Robertson getting a big contract, so I’m forcing their hand by offering Bourque 4x$4.775m, the max AAV that would only cost a second-round pick if the Stars don’t match (per PuckPedia). Slotting Bourque into the second line in place of Viktor Arvidsson would give the Bruins another skilled young top-six forward, and maybe even Pavel Zacha insurance if he’s on the move before his contract expires.
Jon Turcotte – As much as I love the top three goalies in the system, I would be willing to move on from any of them for the right price. We’ve seen over the past couple of decades that you don’t necessarily need an all-star caliber goalie to win the cup; you need a hot goalie. Consistency is nice, but defensive structure can go a long way in boosting a goalie’s stats.
While I love Swayman (he is, after all, the only player on the team whose jersey I own), I would entertain an offer that can boost the D-core or address Boston’s scoring needs. That said, his no-trade clause is kicking in soon, so Don will have to weigh his options within the next few weeks leading up to the draft.
One player to monitor is Anaheim’s Mason McTavish. Drafted 3rd overall in 2021, the talented forward recently found himself as a healthy scratch. Although he is locked up through the 2031-32 season, a fresh start might do him a world of good. You know who else could use a fresh start? Matthew Poitras. He showed massive promise when he first broke into the league, but his trajectory has leveled off a bit. I still believe in his high upside, but because he is at the end of his entry-level contract, a simple one-for-one swap wouldn’t be enough to land a player of McTavish’s caliber.
This is where Don Sweeney’s job gets tricky. Normally, you’d sweeten a deal like this with draft picks, but Boston is currently light on immediate capital. Since the Maple Leafs won the recent draft lottery, the 2026 first-round pick Toronto owed Boston is deferred to a future year. Without a plethora of draft picks at his disposal, Sweeney will have to get creative if he wants to pull this off.
One of the more obvious moves is to extend Fraser Minten. After being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in the blockbuster Brandon Carlo trade, Minten quickly proved he belongs in Boston’s long-term plans. The 21-year-old center just wrapped up a highly impressive rookie season, dressing for all 82 regular-season games and putting up 35 points on 17 goals and 18 assists (which led to him winning the 7th Player Award for the Bruins).
Minten is entering the final year of his entry-level contract, which carries a highly manageable cap hit but is set to expire at the end of the 2026-27 season, at which point he will become a restricted free agent. Getting him locked in now before his asking price goes up is a smart strategy. His stock continues to rise, especially as he is currently gaining valuable international experience playing alongside NHL veterans for Team Canada at the 2026 IIHF World Championship, where he recently earned Player of the Game honors. With the Bruins looking to solidify their center depth, getting him signed to a long-term extension should be a top priority.
Sam Smith – The first priority that the Bruins need to handle internally is to re-sign Viktor Arvidsson this offseason. Bruins fans saw the connection that he and Pavel Zacha had, and if he isn’t traded this summer, the Bruins should run it back with the 33-year-old winger. He had 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points in 69 games in the regular season, as well as putting up two goals in the playoffs. I would give Arvidsson a two-year deal, with an AAV of $4.75 million per season.
My next move is to trade Joonas Korpisalo at the draft. As Neil mentioned above, Michael DiPietro has earned and deserved a legitimate chance in the NHL ever since the end of the 2024-2025 season. And this summer, with his trade value higher than last summer’s, I would attempt to get a mid- to low-round draft pick in return. If that isn’t feasible, eating the dead cap hit and buying out his contract wouldn’t be too bad with the salary cap going up, because DiPietro has earned a shot to be in the show.
As Cam Neely admitted during the end-of-year press conference, the Bruins are still lacking a first-line center, and if you have someone like David Pastrnak forcing your hand in postgame comments, you have to make a move. However, since there isn’t a true 1C available on the UFA market, I would look at trading for Robert Thomas from St. Louis. He is the true 1C that the Bruins need to become a future contender.
My trade package would be: Robert Thomas to Boston for Mason Lohrei, Casey Mittelstadt, the 23rd pick in this draft, and one of the three 4th round picks the Bruins have in this draft. That may sound like a crazy return, but if the Bruins want a true 1C and for the money to work, they have to be willing to do a deal like this.
Eamonn McLean – Move #1: The Boston Bruins Acquire Forward Mason McTavish ($7MX5) and Defenseman Olen Zellweger (Pending RFA) in exchange for Pavel Zacha, Mason Lohrei, the rights to Matt Poitras, and Detroit’s 4th round pick in the 2026 Draft.
I want to admit, I could be fully off on the value of these two players; however, I do think they are worth pursuing from a Bruins perspective. McTavish’s production took a bit of a hit this year, as he put up 17-24-41 in 75 games for Anaheim, but, similar to Jeremy Swayman, he missed a large portion of training camp due to not having a contract. Swayman bounced back the next season, and I think McTavish will too, who, at 6’1”, 218, is a prototypical Bruin.
Zellweger hasn’t quite broken out at the NHL level, but was an Elite offensive player in Junior with the Everett Silvertips. He’s on the smaller side at 5’10”, 194, but we’ve seen a smaller, puck-moving defenseman complement Charlie McAvoy well in the past. It’s a bet that’s worth taking.
I’m selling high on Pavel Zacha, who had a great season, but his two goals in 31 career NHL Playoff games are too much of a concern for me to ink him to the $7.5-$9M AAV contract he could be in line for with another good season. I’ll take the younger, cost-controlled McTavish if I can get him. Mason Lohrei’s time in Boston is up, and I suspect Matt Poitras’ is too.
I threw in one of the Bruins’ three fourth-round picks in this summer’s draft as a sweetener, as I admittedly have no idea what the value of Lohrei and Poitras is leaguewide. Consider it Zellweger for Lohrei and a 4th, and McTavish for Zacha and Poitras (or a 2nd round pick if Anaheim doesn’t like Poitras).
Move #2: The Boston Bruins sign Free Agent Defenseman Darren Raddysh to a six-year, $48,000,000 contract.
I don’t love paying big Free Agent contracts, but this is unfortunately where the Bruins find themselves, as a consequence of not drafting virtually any right-handed defensemen since 2021, when they drafted Ryan Mast and Ty Gallagher in the sixth and seventh rounds of the draft. The last time they drafted a right-shot defender with a pick in the first three rounds, you’d have to go back to 2018, when they drafted Axel Andersson 57th overall.
As a result, the Bruins find themselves with a desperate need for a 2nd-pair Right-shot defender to play behind Charlie McAvoy. To solve that problem, I opted for Darren Raddysh, who AFP Analytics projects to sign a six-year deal in the $8,000,000 AAV range. Whether or not he gets less or more than that remains to be seen, but that’s probably the only real option they have to address this glaring hole, assuming Rasmus Andersson extends with the Vegas Golden Knights. I do think Raddysh gives you a few good years on that contract, however, and he’d be a great fit on the Power Play.
Move #3: The Boston Bruins Acquire Forward Elias Pettersson ($10MX6 remaining) from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Casey Mittelstadt, Alex Steeves, the Florida Panthers 1st Round pick in the 2028 NHL Entry Draft, and a 3rd Round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. Vancouver retains $1.6M of Pettersson’s $11.6M cap hit.
This is a move that will get me screamed at, but the Boston Bruins need a 1st-Line Center. You cannot win in this league without one, as evidenced by the Minnesota Wild, a team with two World-Class wingers, multiple Elite Defensemen, and two solid Goaltenders, who got bounced in five games in the 2nd round, because they lack a true #1 Center. Sure, you could trade for Robert Thomas, but then say goodbye to either multiple of your 1st round picks, or one of James Hagens or Dean Letourneau. Personally, I’d like to see those guys play for the Boston Bruins.
Trading for Pettersson, I will fully admit, could completely backfire. It could go horribly wrong. But… what if it doesn’t? What if he bounces back to the 90-100 point player he was just two seasons ago? If he does, well, you just got yourself a legit #1C for pennies on the dollar. This is a huge risk, but it’s one worth taking if you’re the Bruins.
This roster has so many holes that I’m not sure they can make a big trade for Jason Robertson AND find a top-pair D, a 2nd-pair guy, a couple of top-six wingers, etc. I do think Pettersson would bounce back offensively if he got to play with Pastrnak, and he’s a respectable defensive player. Even if he only becomes a 70-80 point guy, at $10M, that’s pretty reasonable for where the Salary Cap is headed.
I think the speculation around his off-ice concerns is a bit silly. Are they valid? Maybe. But let’s not act like the Vancouver Canucks are reliable narrators here. That organization would put the cast of Mean Girls to shame with the amount of gossip and drama that comes out of that team. A move to Boston could do a lot for EP40, similarly to how the trade to Philadelphia revitalized Trevor Zegras’ career after a quiet two seasons in Anaheim. I refuse to believe a 27-year-old former 100-point scorer woke up one day and forgot how to play hockey, although again, maybe I’m wrong.
Declan Flavin – Move 1: Trade either David Pastrnak or Charlie McAvoy for needed youth
Before the crowd goes haywire, know that this move is out of a need for capable young talent more than anything else. After trying to find support for the three-headed core, management should quickly realize that the ability to get an ideal return on any deal, including players like Matt Poitras or Mason Lohrei, will be tougher than expected.
Sure, the organization can package these players with draft picks for whatever is available, but none of the popular names provide the explosion that Pastrnak needs as a complement or the brutality and smarts that McAvoy needs by his side. The National Hockey League is only getting more dynamic, and you can’t just wait for James Hagens and Dean Letourneau to aid your stars either.
Move 2: Make Jeremy Swayman Quasi Captain
Playoff time is what has always mattered more when figuring out where the team stands, and Swayman showed again in the series versus the Buffalo Sabres why you extended him long-term. He combines talent in net with a calming passion that appears to be contagious for the roster around him, factoring into timeout decisions and even providing much-needed fire-ups on the bench.
Although there are different ways of going about leading a locker room, as many saw with Patrice Bergeron’s actions-not-words approach, the team could use a trip back to more of the Zdeno Chara way of doing things. Big Zee spoke by example as well, but his vocal support, along with that of many other veterans in 2011, is what led that core to their Stanley Cup.
Move 3: Develop James Hagens as a Winger
Hagens can’t be blamed for a somewhat rushed debut in the NHL, but certain things stand out on tape regarding what he’s naturally geared toward positionally. The prospect certainly showed vision and precision on short passes out of wall battles, but his willingness to keep shooting despite several misses stood out. For a roster that’s been plagued for years by overpassing, the Bruins cannot afford to lose another young talent to the same problem. Use that strength while developing his skating ability, which seems to need refining over the offseason, and have him ready to play serious minutes as a finisher-type wing.
Leave a Reply