The Boston Bruins made their first big move of the offseason this week when they signed general manager Don Sweeney to a two-year extension through the 2027-28 season. Barring a surprise, their next big move will be the hiring of their new head coach.
That could come in the next couple weeks. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported on Thursday that the Bruins are expected to conduct their final round of interviews next week. While LeBrun acknowledged he is not sure who made the final cut, he listed Marco Sturm, Jay Woodcroft, Mitch Love, Luke Richardson, Joe Sacco and Jay Leach as being among those who have had at least one interview already.
After that, there’s the NHL Draft on June 27-28 and then the start of free agency on July 1. So, what might the Bruins look like when that’s all said and done? Well, in the name of creating (hopefully) interesting offseason content, we here at The Skate Podcast took a stab at mocking the Bruins’ entire offseason in a two-part episode this week. You can listen to both parts below, with full explanations of all our moves and how the three of us arrived at our decisions. Part 1 is hiring a coach, working on the Bruins’ restricted free agents, and reacting to the Sweeney extension. Part 2 is the real fun: unrestricted free agency, offer sheets, potential trades, and who we’re taking with the seventh overall pick.
The coach: We went with Marco Sturm. The former Bruins forward seems to check all the boxes Sweeney is and should be looking for. He has been an NHL assistant coach, an AHL head coach, and a head coach of the German national team. He has been successful in each job, and he’s widely regarded as an up-and-comer who will get his first NHL head coaching job soon – whether it’s with Boston or someone else. We all liked the idea of Dallas Stars assistant Misha Donskov, but the Bruins aren’t going to wait for a potential Stanley Cup run to end in mid-June. I would have Jay Woodcroft high on my list as well; there’s something to be said for a coach who takes the time to learn and grow between his first and second NHL opportunities.
The first-round pick: We agreed on center Jake O’Brien at seven. Just going off the relative consensus, we had Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, James Hagens, Caleb Desnoyers, Anton Frondell and Porter Martone all off the board. Assuming the Bruins go center, they would have their choice of O’Brien, Roger McQueen or Brady Martin. McQueen might have the highest upside, but also the biggest question marks thanks to a back injury that cost him most of this season. Martin is the most physical and brings the highest compete level, but probably doesn’t have as high a ceiling offensively. O’Brien feels like the right balance of floor and ceiling: his offensive creativity and hockey IQ should make him a top-six player, and his excellent second half in the OHL, late birthday and room to add more muscle to his frame suggest there’s still another level he can get to.
The restricted free agents: The Bruins have five: Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrei, Marat Khusnutdinov, Jakub Lauko and Johnny Beecher. We used AFP Analytics as a guide, but not an end-all, be-all for contract projections. We’re keeping Geekie at five years, $6 million AAV coming off a 33-goal season. We’re going bridge deal for Lohrei: two years, $2.5 million AAV. Khusnutdinov is worth keeping around to see what he becomes, and he should be cheap (2 years, $925,000 AAV). Lauko sticks around as a depth forward who brings energy and good vibes (1 year, $1M AAV). We’re moving on from Beecher; his defensive play and faceoffs are appreciated, but the Bruins need more from their fourth line.
Bruins’ own unrestricted free agents: Cole Koepke was solid when he only needed to be a fourth-liner last season. We think keeping him on a one- or two-year deal for right around $1 million is worthwhile. Mike Callahan, on a league-minimum $775,000 deal, replaces Parker Wotherspoon as the seventh defenseman, so Wotherspoon is gone. We also let Henri Jokiharju walk.
Help from Providence? The Bruins are going to need someone from Providence to push for NHL jobs next season, especially up front. We penciled in Matt Poitras ($870,000) and Fraser Minten ($817,000).
Free-agent shopping: The Bruins are projected to start the offseason with $28.82 million in cap space. After all of the above housekeeping, they would have 11 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies locked up, and would have $14.93 million left in cap space.
The first and biggest question we needed to debate was whether we wanted to seriously pursue Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Mitch Marner. He is easily the most productive and most talented forward on the market, a caliber of star who rarely gets to unrestricted free agency. He also once again under-performed in the playoffs for a Leafs team that once again failed to get past the second round. I voted yes on pursuing Marner, who AFP projects to sign for seven years, $12.9M AAV. The playoff concerns are real, but the Bruins desperately need more offensive star power. Beggars can’t be choosers. If the Bruins wanted to make any other moves beyond Marner, they would need to clear out some salary; I suggested dumping Casey Mittelstadt ($5.75M AAV) and Joonas Korpisalo ($3M AAV) and using that money to target other free agents. Ultimately, though, I got overruled by my two co-hosts, Bridgette Proulx and Brian DeFelice, who determined that signing Marner wasn’t realistic enough – both because of the financial maneuvering it would take to land him, and because they don’t think he would even want to come to another high-pressure city after dealing with Toronto fans and media.
With Marner out, there were two players we were able to agree on fairly painlessly: center Sam Bennett and defenseman Dante Fabbro. We weren’t comfortable with wingers Brock Boeser and Nik Ehlers at AFP’s projections (over $8M AAV for both) – although I was at least more open to Ehlers than Bridgette and Brian. A mid-30s veteran like John Tavares, Matt Duchene or Brock Nelson (if they even go to market) doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense for the Bruins’ timeline, although they are all centers. Bennett, while currently a public enemy in Boston, is 28, a tone-setter physically, and a proven winner. He currently leads the Florida Panthers in playoff goals as they look to get back to the Stanley Cup Final. For those reasons, he is likely to exceed AFP’s $6.6M AAV projection. We are hoping six years, $7M AAV gets it done, but it’s possible his market goes even higher than that.
The Bruins also need a Brandon Carlo replacement on the right side of their defense. Fabbro doesn’t play like Carlo, but the Bruins could use his skating and puck-moving on the back end. Fabbro is 26 and really rediscovered his game after an early-season move from Nashville to Columbus this past year. Four years, $4.5M AAV seems reasonable. Nick Perbix was our cheaper backup option if we can’t get Fabbro.
So, now we have 12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies, and $3.43 million left in cap space. That might be just enough to add another middle-six forward on the cheap, but we can create another $1.5-2 million if we trade away Korpisalo and go with Michael DiPietro as backup goalie (even if we have to retain $500,000 or so of Korpisalo’s contract). Let’s say $2.5 million is gone with Korpisalo, and DiPietro is in at $900,000. Now we have $5.03 million to work with.
Bridgette and Brian both wanted Patrick Kane, who still had 59 points in 72 games at age 36 last season. He could certainly help the offense, especially the power play. But there is mutual interest in Kane re-signing with the Detroit Red Wings, so we ultimately took him off the market.
My move, and what we ultimately decided to do here, is to offer sheet New York Rangers restricted free agent winger Will Cuylle and trade a second-round pick for him. Cuylle is 23, very physical, and had 20 goals and 45 points last season. The Rangers have cap issues and might be willing to take the second-round pick for him. AFP projects three years, $3.4M AAV for Cuylle, but an offer sheet might have to come in higher than that. We said $3.5M on the podcast, but $3.75M or even $4M is probably more realistic. We have the money for it after trading Korpisalo, and would still have more than $1 million left over, which is what teams like to hold onto in order to have enough space to make call-ups.
So, after all that, here’s our roster:
FORWARDS (13)
Morgan Geekie ($6M) – Elias Lindholm ($7.75M) – David Pastrnak ($11.25M)
Casey Mittelstadt ($5.75M) – Sam Bennett ($7M) – Pavel Zacha ($4.75M)
Will Cuylle ($3.5M) – Fraser Minten ($817k) – Matt Poitras ($870k)
Marat Khusnutdinov ($925k) – Mark Kastelic ($1.567M) – Cole Koepke ($1M)
Jakub Lauko ($1M)
DEFENSE (7)
Mason Lohrei ($2.5M) – Charlie McAvoy ($9.5M)
Hampus Lindholm ($6.5M) – Dante Fabbro ($4.5M)
Nikita Zadorov ($5M) – Andrew Peeke ($2.75M)
Mike Callahan ($775k)
GOALIES (2)
Jeremy Swayman ($8.25M)
Michael DiPietro ($900k)
Total salary (with $1.115M retained on Korpisalo and Carlo): $93.97M
Remaining cap space: $1.53M
Roster spots used: 22 of 23
So, there’s even room here for another youngster or cheap veteran to win a roster spot in training camp.
This is still a bit of an incomplete roster, to be sure. It still needs another scorer. It still doesn’t have a true high-end No. 1 center. It needs youngsters like Lohrei, Poitras and Minten to take big steps. It’s better, though. Bennett and Cuylle would help establish a much-needed identity. This could be a playoff team. It’s not a Stanley Cup contender, but the Bruins have too much work to do to get there in one offseason anyways.