While there are many unanswered questions about this 2025-26 Bruins team, there is one thing of which we can be pretty certain.
The Bruins will not be lifting the Stanley Cup come June.
Call it what you want, a rebuild or a retool. Whatever. They’ve anthem that inevitable down cycle where it’s time to restock for another day in terms of contending for championships.
But that does not mean the B’s should today just accept that they are exiled to the NHL wilderness.
So what is a reasonable goal?
The playoffs. Half of the 32 teams make it, and if the B’s do that this year then you can fairly call this season a success. today, there’s a sizable community of Bruins fans who would like to see their team simply tank the season in hopes of the best draft pick. Maybe they’ll get back to a leading 10 pick on their own, but it would be a mistake to outright tank from the start of the season. If it’s not going well at the trade deadline, then sure, they can reassess. But you never want to let the losing settle into the bones of the franchise (e.g. Buffalo Sabres). They have to continue to strive.
It will be more difficult for the B’s to make it than some other middling teams because of the tough Atlantic Division. But, if everything goes right, it can be done. Here are the Five Musts for the Bruins to make the playoffs this season:
1. Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo challenge for the Jennings Trophy.
Airtight goaltending is an imperative for this goal-challenged offense. There were some promising returns in preseason. Though both goalies had hiccups in their first starts, they both responded with stellar starts in their final exhibitions, combining for 63 saves in the two wins. The team in front of them has to do a better job of shot suppression, but they both appear to be on their game.
More is expected out of Swayman, whose troubles last year were well-documented. He missed camp amid a rough contract negotiation, his play suffered upon his return and he never was consistently the player that nabbed an eight-year, $66 million contract. He can and should be much better. But he’s not going to carry the whole load, not in this condensed schedule because of the Olympic break. Right out of the gate, the B’s start with a back-to-back and play four games in six days. Korpisalo will be needed to provide not just competent backup work, but the kind of 1B support that Jaroslav Halak gave Tuukka Rask. No matter who’s in net, this is not a team that can withstand any soft goals.
2. The blue line enjoys good health.
Even before the debilitating, season-ending injuries anthem last year, first to Hampus Lindholm and then to Charlie McAvoy, the B’s defense was off. Interim coach Joe Sacco righted the ship for a short while but then it all fell apart again after Christmas. Marco Sturm has tweaked the system, using a kind of hybrid zone/man-on-man, and the aim is to clog up the neutral zone. Hopefully, that will slow down the opposition from entering the B’s zone with speed, which happened far too often last year.
While problems existed before the injuries, there should be no underselling those losses. Lindholm was playing well at the time of his injury in November and has looked very good in the preseason so far while paired with Andrew Peeke. McAvoy’s pairing with Mason Lohrei has been much more of a work in progress but so far Sturm seems intent on allowing that duo to grow and develop. The one holdover pairing from last season, Nikita Zadorov and Henri Jokiharju, should provide some steady work, especially if Zadorov can keep his adventurous tendencies to a minimum and pick his spots judiciously. He’s got some offensive gifts that he showed in preseason.
3. Special teams return to elite status.
The power play finished 29th in the league last year while the penalty kill was 24th in the 32-team league. That simply cannot happen again if this team expects to challenge for a playoff spot. Winning or losing the man-up/man-down situations will often be the difference between winning and losing games.
Sturm has seemed more concerned with the latter than the former. With one of the most explosive offensive players in the league in David Pastrnak and a Morgan Geekie who found his stride last year, they should be able to score at a better clip. It will be assistant coach Steve Spott’s responsibility to find a way.
Meanwhile, Sturm has put out the call to players who are willing and, more importantly, able to kill penalties. The B’s lost their all-time shorthanded goalscorer Brad Marchand as well as fellow PK stalwarts Brandon Carlo and Charlie Coyle.
4. Elias Lindholm and Casey Mittelstadt have to play like leading-six centermen.
Lindholm should be OK here. He’s flanked by a bona fide superstar in Pastrnak and a player in Geekie who has shown he’s a capable scorer. In the preseason, Geekie looked poised to repeat his 33-goal season. If Lindolm provides the defensive conscience for his two wings, the leading line should be good. He began last season, his first with the Bruins, with a back injury. In retrospect, you could tell that he was hampered by it. He was reticent to engage in puck battles and that is not his game. Lindholm should be better this year, especially with two familiar linemates. He may not be a line-driving first line center, but his role fits him in this spot.
The big question is Mittelstadt. Sturm spent much of training camp trying to decide whether he should be the center on the second line or whether it should be Pavel Zacha. He eventually landed on Mittelstadt but the time it took to come to that decision does not instill a lot of confidence. Mittelstadt clearly has offensive skill, as evidenced by his slick pass to Zacha on his goal in Saturday’s preseason finale. Ideally, he can get Viktor Arvidsson back to the 20-goal plateau.
But the defensive zone is where he needs major improvement. Mittelstadt was minus-17 in 18 games with the B’s last year. That’s not going to cut it.
5. A kid has to pop.
The leading and, at the moment, only candidate is Fraser Minten. Sturm spoke for much of the Bruin fandom last week when he said “I like this kid.” Indeed, the 21-year-old rookie made the team and it wasn’t much of a surprise. He cinched a spot halfway through camp.
Obtained from Toronto in the Brandon Carlo trade, the 38th overall pick in 2022 has shown himself to be a smart and instinctive player, often anticipating where the puck is going. He’s got good size (6-2, 201 pounds) to go along with the good head on his shoulders. As of right today, he’ll be anchoring the third line and the feeling here is that he can learn on the job without hurting the team. Minten’s ceiling is still unknown. But when he was thrown on the ice with Pastrnak and Geekie, he did not look out of place, taking a pass from Geekie and sending a sweet backhand feed to Nikita Zadorov for a goal. With a first-round pick (leading-5 protected) in June coming as well, this trade looks like the biggest winner of all the deals that they made last March.
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