As half of the National Hockey League prepares for the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Boston Bruins are encountering life as a have-not for the first time in nine seasons.
We have not hit Easter or Marathon Monday and Bruins’ hockey is over for the 2024-25 season. It was a disaster that brought about the end of an era that came up excruciatingly short of the ultimate goal.
To that end, the club is now in the post-mortem phase, starting with CEO Charlie Jacobs’ we-feel-your-pain letter to the fans that was sent out on Wednesday.
Jacobs said in the statement, “expectations and accountability are higher than ever.”
So far, the only people held accountable have been the fans, to the tune of 4% ticket price increases across the board. Jacobs re-iterated the support he showed team president Cam Neely, general manager Don Sweeney and the hockey operations department.
And while many fans reflexively call for a scalp on the occasion of such an awful season, the opinion here is that he’s right to stick with this leadership group. If Jacobs had lost trust in Neely and Sweeney, the time to move on would have been before they started making the trades at the deadline that will have a big hand in shaping the future.
But as far as the expectations go, both Neely and Sweeney (who is entering the final year of is contract) better hope that Jacobs tempers those, at least in the short term. They all may want to use the term “retool” over “rebuild” – it sure sounds more palatable when you raise ticket prices – but the job ahead of them seems closer to the latter than the former. Their best retooling asset, the first-round pick which will range from the top pick to No. 7, is most likely a year or even two away from having any impact on the team. And there are major questions facing this roster, even areas in which management has expressed confidence. Let’s take a look at them.
Swayman went from being what looked like a sure thing to a reclamation project. He put a bullseye on his back during his bare knuckle contract negotiation last offseason which garnered him a whopping eight-year, $66 million deal, despite not having played more than 44 games in a season before this year. It went off the rails. With the increased workload, he posted a 22-29-7 record with a whopping 3.11 goals against average and .892 save percentage.
Those numbers would submarine better teams. His effectiveness waned when he got a third consecutive start. Blocker-side shots had a way of finding the back of the net. The B’s have to hope that missing all of training camp was a key factor in his game’s cratering. If Swayman can’t get right, nothing else matters much.
Swayman may not have covered up any warts, but his bad season did not happen in a vacuum. The ‘D’ will be greatly improved when Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm return. At least that’s the theory. Not many teams can drop into their lineups two defensemen with resumes like McAvoy’s and Lindholm’s. But both players suffered season-ending injuries, leaving the lineup with a lot of runway left on the track. McAvoy has been skating and participating in practices for weeks now, so there’s reasonable expectation he’ll be back and ready to go. Lindholm is a little more concerning.
He broke a bone in his knee when he took a shot off it on Nov. 12. It looked like he was on the precipice of returning in January but had to back off and go in for a clean-up procedure. At season’s end, he had still not resumed skating. Also, the B’s will be in the market for another top-four defenseman after the Brandon Carlo trade. Maybe that’s Henri Jokiharju, who is an unrestricted free agent. Right shot D are hard to find. He’s been a decent complement to Nikita Zadorov, but he’s not the end-of-game player or penalty killer that Carlo was when he was playing his best. Meanwhile, Mason Lohrei (minus-43) was thrown in the deep end because of the Lindholm injury and treading water was a chore at times. He’s got good offensive skills and instincts but he needs more sheltered minutes. Aside from Frederic Brunet, who may still be a year away, there’s also not much on the farm if the B’s incur injuries on the back end.
There was at least some hope in how their big offseason acquisition, Elias Lindholm, performed with David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie. For the first time all season, he found a fit. Unfortunately, it happened after their season and much of the roster was washed away. But barring a miraculous trade that delivers them a top pivot, it doesn’t seem like they have much of a choice to give it another go with Lindholm between the two shooters (provided they sign the RFA Geekie).
Casey Mittelstadt, whom the B’s acquired in the Charlie Coyle trade, did not impress after his arrival. While a promising facilitator on the power play, he didn’t bring much else. In 18 games, he had just 4-2-6 totals and was minus-17 in 18 games. Winning battles was not a strong suit. Whomever they draft in June will not be a plug-and-play center. Once an area of great strength, the middle of the ice is now a major question mark.
Most of the impact center currently slated to be UFAs are long in the tooth, with the exception of Bruin nemesis Sam Bennett, who is 28. Bennett got closer to his original ceiling with Florida than he did with Calgary, which chose him fourth overall in 2014, but he’s not a huge point producer. He reached his high water this season with 25-26-51 (as well as minus-15). But considering the edge with which he plays and Stanley Cup pedigree, it feels like someone will overpay for him.
The B’s can’t afford to do that again. The good news/bad news is that the B’s need wings, too! The prize of the market, if he gets to it, is Toronto’s Mitch Marner but it’s hard to see the Bruins being attractive to him. The right wing would be behind Pastrnak on the depth chart and, if we’re looking through Marner’s eyes, he’d have to wonder who his center would be. But there are quality wings on the next tier down, like Nikolaj Ehlers or Brock Boeser, who should help the B’s prospects.
“Play the kids” is a familiar lament from the fandom, especially when the team is trending in the wrong direction. Playing the kids comes with growing pains, as we saw Lohrei. But the B’s will have no choice but to have some sort of a youth movement. I’ve seen enough of 20-year-old Fraser Minten, obtained in the Carlo deal, to believe he’s a strong candidate for full-time NHL duty.
He plays on the right side of the puck, has enough size not be overpowered and should gain more man-strength over the summer. Fabian Lysell finished well after being recalled and hopefully that will instill the confidence for him to play his game. Depending on how long Providence goes, he’d be well served to arrive in Brighton ahead of September. Matt Poitras remains a good prospect and is a producer at the AHL level but, after a couple of false starts, they have to make sure that he’s ready before he gets the next call.
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