Bruins' flurry of moves to start free agency didn't address team's top weakness originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney did a very good job maximizing the value of veteran players at the trade deadline back in March. He also was universally praised last week for the team’s 2025 draft class, a group headlined by Boston College star James Hagens.
He signed right wing Morgan Geekie, defenseman Mason Lohrei and several other Bruins restricted free agents to team-friendly contracts over the last two weeks.
Sweeney was firing on all cylinders in his mission to build another winning roster in Boston.
And then NHL free agency opened, and that positive momentum was halted.
If you’re looking for a word to describe the moves the Bruins made on Day 1 of free agency, puzzling is a good one.
The Bruins were one of the league’s worst offensive teams last season. They ranked 21st in goals scored, 29th in power-play percentage, 31st in high-danger chances and 29th in shots on net at even strength. They had the fourth-worst power play. Only two players who finished the season on the roster — David Pastrnak and Geekie — scored more than 17 goals.
And yet, despite a severe lack of scoring depth and high-end talent, the Bruins decided to acquire several bottom-six forwards Tuesday with little offensive upside. Depth is nice to have, but the Bruins need true difference-makers to get back to the playoffs. And even if the free agent class lacked difference-makers, that doesn’t mean you have to spend money on mediocre (or worse) players.
“At times last year, even when we had our (full) group, we were an easy out. I just can’t stand for that. So we are going to re-establish that,” Sweeney told reporters Tuesday at a press conference.
The Bruins don’t need a lot more toughness. They went into last season as the second-tallest and heaviest team in the league. It didn’t go well. They even ranked third in both fighting majors and hits last season.
Being hard to play against is great. The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are very difficult to play against. But the Panthers also can score a ton of goals — 4.09 goals per game in the 2025 playoffs, for example.
The Bruins’ problem last season — as noted in the table above — was that they couldn’t put the puck in the back of the net on a consistent basis.
Boston’s first move Tuesday was trading for Edmonton Oilers left wing Viktor Arvidsson. The 32-year-old veteran is coming off a down season with the Oilers in which he scored 15 goals in 67 games. But he does have five 20-goal seasons in his career, and his contract has only one more year remaining with a $4 million cap hit.
Arvidsson potentially could be a second-line player, but he’s really a third-liner. Overall, though, it’s not a horrible addition, and the cost to get him — a 2027 fifth-round draft pick — was minimal.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, the rest of the day got progressively worse.
The stunner was a five-year, $17 million contract for Tanner Jeannot. Multiple teams have bet on his potential in recent seasons and lost. The Bruins could be the latest to suffer that fate.
Jeannot scored 24 goals with the Predators in 2021-22. It’s the only time he has ever scored 10-plus goals in a season. He has scored only 20 goals over the last three seasons combined. His scoring total last season with the Kings was just 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in 67 games. Jeannot doesn’t score many goals and he doesn’t create scoring chances for teammates.
Jeannot is a physical forward. He has the sixth-most hits of any player over the last four years. He fights, too. But giving a bottom-six player with limited offensive potential a five-year deal and a $3.4 million cap hit is just baffling. And he’s not likely to contribute to the power play or penalty kill, either.
If the Bruins valued tough, physical players in their bottom-six, why not just keep Trent Frederic or Justin Brazeau? Boston dealt both of them before the trade deadline in March. Brazeau signed a cheap two-year, $3 million deal with the Penguins on Tuesday.
The Bruins also added bottom-six forwards Sean Kuraly, Michael Eyssimont and Matej Blumel on Tuesday. Blumel scored 39 goals in 67 games with the AHL’s Texas Stars last season. He’s well worth a gamble on a one-year, $875,000 deal. Eyssimont is a pain to play against and shoots the puck a ton. Kuraly was a fan favorite in Boston before departing as a free agent in 2021.
These are solid depth players, but none of them should be expected to make much of an impact offensively.
They also aren’t likely to be major upgrades over the young players and prospects already in the Bruins organization. The real problem with signing a bunch of veteran bottom-six forwards is that they can block the development path of younger, more talented players. How many minutes is Matt Poitras going to get now? What about Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov? How does Fraser Minten fit into the team’s plans?
The Bruins have Marat Khusnutdinov, John Beecher, Mark Kastelic, Arvidsson, Poitras, Minten, Jeannot, Kuraly, Eyssimont, Blumel, Merkulov and Lysell vying for six spots between the third and fourth lines. Even if someone like Arvidsson plays in the top-six, that’s still way too many bottom-six players. Are the Bruins going to waive someone? Will we see a trade or two?
For many years, the Bruins have prioritized veteran, low-scoring, physical bottom-six forwards over giving younger players enough minutes to prove themselves. And based on Tuesday’s moves, it looks like we’ll see more of the same next season.
Acquiring elite offensive talent needed to be the Bruins’ top objective this offseason. You can’t win in the playoffs with only one high-end forward. Outside of Pastrnak, none of Boston’s forwards are going to strike fear into opposing defensemen. If you look at the four teams that reached the conference finals — Oilers, Panthers, Stars, Hurricanes — all of them had at least two elite offensive players. The Oilers, Panthers and Stars have three or four apiece.
Most of the players the Bruins signed Tuesday aren’t afraid to shoot the puck. And for a team that ranked in the bottom third of several shot metrics last season, it made sense to find players who will increase the team’s volume of shots.
That said, you also need players who can finish, and the Bruins have very few of those guys.
We’re still in the early stages of the offseason. Sweeney could make a few trades in the coming weeks and months to add a bonafide top-six forward.
But right now, it’s hard to figure out the Bruins’ plan up front. If no significant additions are made before Opening Night in October, the Bruins had better hope starting goalie Jeremy Swayman has a bounce-back season. Boston is not currently built to win high-scoring games.
“I do believe when you put the full group together, what they’re capable of doing, we’ll score enough if we play the right way, and we’ll defend a hell of a lot better, and I expect our goaltending to be significantly better,” Sweeney said.
