A frequent reader of the site asked for my thoughts on the Boston Bruins and their team outlook. He is of the thought that this team is screwed. I agree with that thinking. As a matter of fact, I have agreed with that line of thought for a number of years. Even when they broke the single-season points record, I just was not impressed with their roster. The roster has only got worse and worse. Gone are the days of Chara, Marchand, and Bergeron. Credit for having a good 2025 NHL entry draft selecting James Hagens. Also, they own two first round picks in each of the next two drafts; however, Toronto’s may get deferred to 2027 if they don’t figure things out. The future may not be as bleak as it seemed in January of 2025 when they had the third worst prospect pool in the entire NHL the two teams behind them were Edmonton and Florida. I don’t trust this team to continue drafting well and I definitely don’t see them continuing to trade off pieces, more on those topics later.
As for the present, this team stinks. They are currently in first in their division but by points percentage they are not in the playoffs. They boast the worst center depth in the entire league. Instead of funneling more money towards a center, they signed fucking Tanner Jeannot to a 5 year 3.4-million-dollar contract. They are no longer getting the goaltending that allowed their lackluster crop of forwards to win games. Outside of Charlie McAvoy (injured) and David Pastrnak, what is there to like about this team? Every single player, aside from those two, and maybe Fraser Minten, would be slotted one to two lines lower on almost every other roster in the entire league. Nikita Zadorov is not a top pairing defenseman, but he’s forced to be because Hampus Lindholm certainly isn’t the guy either. Look at Zadorov give away a puck at the blueline and then Lindholm cover absolutely no one in front of the net last night:
Without getting Vezina level goaltending, this team is dead in the water. Beyond that, if Pastrnak and Geekie stop scoring goals, this could be one of the worst offensive teams the league has ever seen. Right now, this is team is getting lucky that the rest of the division is suffering from a myriad of issues; injures in Montreal, Ottawa, and Florida, Toronto being slow and improperly managed (replacing Marner with career third liners doesn’t seem to be paying off), plus Tampa getting off to an egregiously slow start. Sure, the Bruins are 8-2 in their last ten but it’s only a matter of time before this bear steps into a trap, nothing about this team is sustainable. They only have one lineup regular with a positive Corsi, Sean Kuraly (4th line center, Corsi 51.1%) not a huge analytic/corsi guy but that is certainly not a long-term recipe for success.
As it stands today, the Bruins will likely finish right where their point percentage suggests which is right outside of the playoffs. I will give them credit for their re-tooling of the prospect pool last year, but it left them with nothing of value to trade this year. I don’t foresee Don Sweeney moving Pastrnak, McAvoy, or Swayman (given his number and contract who would even be interested?) and outside of those three no one is a particularly interesting trade chip. The likely middling finish and inability to make moves for futures will definitely fuck this team. Even if they find a way to gather even more draft capital, I wouldn’t trust this team to draft well especially in the first round:
I find it hard to believe that there is a more fraudulent team in the entire league, except maybe Seattle but unlike Boston no one takes them seriously. They don’t have a fanbase, ownership group, or management that will ever be fine with rebuilding so we could see these frauds stay in the middle for years and years to come especially as Detroit, Montreal, and Ottawa continue their upward trajectory.
Unfortunately for us all, the Patriot might be back so we will stay have to deal with Massholes.
Leave a Reply