The Boston Bruins have had a remarkably balanced offensive attack through seven games, with an NHL-best 16 different players already scoring a goal. Their 3.71 goals per game rank sixth in the NHL, and that's with the power play barely getting off the ground (19th in the NHL at 16.7%).
That kind of early scoring depth prompted an interesting question from Ken Laird on WEEI's "Rich & Ken with Ted Johnson" this week: Could the Bruins have six 20-goal scorers this season?
For context, that is something they haven't had since 2011-12, when Tyler Seguin (29), Brad Marchand (28), Milan Lucic (26), David Krejci (23), Patrice Bergeron (22) and Chris Kelly (20) all reached that mark.
When Ken posed the idea to NESN and WEEI's Andrew Raycroft on Wednesday, Razor said he was with him.
"Yes," Raycroft said. "Yeah, that seems very, very reasonable, and within the grasp. Goal-scoring's up. The Bruins have been scoring like crazy. Again, they're not gonna score six, five, six on a weekly basis. But yes. I didn't know it had been that long, but six 20-goal scorers should be absolutely attainable, and almost, can I say expected?"
Let's break down the candidates to do it. Personally, I see five being likely, followed by a couple candidates who could end up right around 20.
Locks: David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie
Pastrnak has scored 20 or more goals in 10 straight seasons, including the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Even with a dip in goal production last year, he finished with 29. The captain clears this mark in his sleep.
Geekie only has one goal through seven games, but he's still been involved offensively with five assists. He's topped 30 goals in each of the last two seasons, including a career-high 39 last year. I fully expect Geekie to start scoring more soon, and to easily clear 20 on the season.
Probable: JJ Peterka
Peterka has scored 25 or more goals in three straight seasons, and that should continue with his new team. He'd be a lock if I was confident he's going to be a regular on the top power-play unit, but right now he's on the second unit. That shouldn't stop him from getting 20, though; Peterka has also topped 20 even-strength goals in three straight seasons. He scored in each of his first two games as a Bruin, but has now gone five games without a goal.
Probable if he isn't traded: Pavel Zacha
Zacha scored a career-high 30 goals last year, and has topped 20 in three of his four seasons in Boston. He's probably not scoring 30 again (his 22.9% shooting percentage last year is bound to regress), but he should get 20… if he's a Bruin all season. Zacha's name continues to pop up in trade rumors thanks to the fact that he's a pending free agent and hasn't signed an extension yet. Zacha went five games without a goal to start the season, but has now scored in back-to-back outings.
On the right track: Fraser Minten
Minten scored 17 goals as a rookie last season, and is well on his way to making more than enough of a Year 2 jump to hit 20. The 22-year-old has scored three goals in the last two games and leads the team with four on the season. He's also second behind Pastrnak in shots. Minten could pretty easily get 25, and maybe even push for 30.
On the fence: Elias Lindholm, James Hagens
Lindholm was the player Ken included as his sixth. You'd like to think the former 40-goal scorer would be able to get there, but Lindholm actually hasn't hit 20 in any of the last three seasons, and that includes two years when he spent significant time on a line with Pastrnak. Lindholm is now centering the Bruins' third line, and even though he's looked good there so far, I'm going to say 20 goals seems unlikely.
Hagens, on the other hand… well, I think the 19-year-old rookie has a chance. Twenty goals is probably on the higher end of what we can reasonably expect from Hagens this year, but it's certainly not unreasonable either. We can actually draw comparisons to a few other highly drafted Boston College Eagles who have debuted at a similar age recently, and who all put together similar rookie seasons.
Cutter Gauthier (fifth overall pick in 2022) had 20 goals and 44 points as a 20-year-old rookie for Anaheim in 2024-25. Will Smith (fourth overall in 2023) had 18 goals and 45 points as a 19-year-old rookie for San Jose that same year. And Ryan Leonard (eighth overall in 2023) had 20 goals and 45 points as a 20-year-old rookie for Washington last year.
Hagens, the seventh overall pick in 2025, has two goals and four points through seven games this season, which pretty much puts him right on that 20-goal, 45-point pace that would match the likes of Gauthier, Smith and Leonard. It's doable, but it could come down to the wire.
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I think those are pretty clearly the best bets if the Bruins are going to have six 20-goal scorers. Casey Mittelstadt has four straight 15-goal seasons, but he's never reached 20. Marat Khusnutdinov scored 15 last year and just turned 24, so we probably shouldn't rule out a jump from him. Matt Poitras has two goals in four games this season and is still just 22, but he's always been more of a pass-first center. We can pretty safely rule out all the defensemen, as the Bruins don't have any who have ever even gotten to 15.
