Hockey is officially back. The Boston Bruins report for training camp on Wednesday and will hold their first official practice of the season on Thursday.
To say this is a massive training camp for the Bruins would be an understatement. It is arguably the most important in recent memory – not in spite of low expectations, but because of those low expectations.
Coming off their worst season in 18 years, the possibility of missing the playoffs for a second straight year is a real one for these Bruins. No one expects this team to be a Stanley Cup contender, and few outside the walls of TD Garden and Warrior Ice Arena even expect them to make the playoffs.
What should be expected after last year’s teardown, though, is for this squad to lay a sturdy foundation that the Bruins’ next contender can be built on.
Building a stronger roster in the years to come will ultimately be the job of general manager Don Sweeney and the front office. But establishing (or re-establishing) things like culture, work ethic, accountability, and defensive structure? That starts now, and it starts with new head coach Marco Sturm and returning team leaders like David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy.
With that in mind, here are 10 Bruins we’ll be watching closely throughout training camp and the preseason:
1. Marco Sturm
Any time you have a first-time NHL head coach, there’s going to be a lot to monitor. How does Sturm run practices? How does he communicate with players? How does he want the team to play? How does he deal with media? How do he and his staff fix the power play?
We have an idea of what Sturm wants those answers to be, in part because he has already dealt with the local media quite a bit through various appearances this summer. He wants practices to have a high intensity and high energy level. That will be needed after a 2024 training camp under former coach Jim Montgomery that all parties now acknowledge was not as intense as it needed to be to properly prepare for the season.
He communicates with players in a clear and direct manner, ideally leaving no grey areas or room for things to be misinterpreted. It is something that has been considered one of his strengths in stops with the Los Angeles Kings (as an assistant), the AHL Ontario Reign and the German national team (both as head coach).
Sturm wants his team to play similar to how he played when he was a Bruin from 2005-10: Fast, aggressive, nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic, and defensively responsible. But what kind of system the Bruins play and how Sturm incorporates younger players remains to be seen.
On the power play, he'll lean on new assistant coach Steve Spott, who has previously run successful power plays in Dallas, Vegas and San Jose. Getting more from the quarterback spot – whether it's Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm or Mason Lohrei – will be crucial.
Whether Sturm can get the Bruins to practice, play and look the way he wants – and how quickly he can do that – is something we’re about to start finding out.
2. Jeremy Swayman
If the Bruins are going to turn things around and exceed expectations, it has to start with Swayman. In Year 1 of his eight-year mega-deal last season, he simply wasn’t good enough, posting an .892 save percentage, 3.11 goals-against average and minus-9.1 goals saved above expected.
At this time last year, Swayman was away from his teammates, sitting out all of training camp as he pushed for a better contract. Those negotiations eventually boiled over into a public war of words between his agent and Bruins president Cam Neely before the two sides finally struck an agreement two days before the start of the regular season.
There’s no question the standoff affected Swayman’s season. Working out at Boston University just isn’t the same as going through an NHL training camp. Swayman found himself playing catch-up all season, and really never completely caught up.
Like everyone else, Swayman gets a fresh start this year. He said last week that he was “so excited” to get to be a part of training camp this time around. He said he’s “a completely different human being” compared to this time last year. Now it’s up to him to make the most of the fresh start and prove this year is going to be different. If he does, last year will begin to look like a fluke. If he doesn’t, well… the conversations around Boston’s big-money goalie are only going to get more uncomfortable.
3. Charlie McAvoy
4. Hampus Lindholm
If Swayman is the No. 1 key to a turnaround, then McAvoy and Lindholm are 2 and 3. On the list of things that went wrong last year, the injuries to these two were among the most significant.
Lindholm was one of the few Bruins who actually started strong last season, but then he fractured his kneecap in November, ran into a setback or two, and ultimately missed the rest of the season.
McAvoy was having a bit of an inconsistent season before seemingly turning a corner with some great play in two 4 Nations games in February. Unfortunately, those were the last two games he’d play for the year. He suffered a shoulder injury and a serious infection in the days that followed, ending his season and effectively ending any lingering hope the Bruins had of making a playoff push.
It can’t be overstated how huge it would be for the 2025-26 Bruins to have McAvoy and Lindholm A) healthy, and B) on top of their games. Both say they feel great now and are ready to go. As team leaders – McAvoy will definitely wear an alternate captain’s ‘A’ and Lindholm may join him – they will be expected to help set the tone both on and off the ice as this team aims to get off to a much better start.
5. Elias Lindholm
Elias Lindholm’s first season in Boston after signing a seven-year, $54.25 million deal in free agency did not go as planned. He played all 82 games, but did not look like the first-line center the Bruins hoped they were getting for much of the season. By the time the Bruins blew everything up at the trade deadline, Lindholm had just 32 points in 65 games and had long since been dropped from the top line. A lingering back issue suffered in the very first practice of the season had not helped.
But while the post-deadline limp to the finish line was largely forgettable for most Bruins, Lindholm was one of the few who actually found some hope in those final weeks of the season. He finally returned to the first line to play with David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie, and wound up posting 15 points in the final 17 games. That line outscored opponents 16-4 in 94 5-on-5 minutes together and had an expected goals share of 64.3%.
The Bruins are expected to open the season with that trio as the top line once again. On a team where secondary scoring is going to be a major question mark, they will need the first line to consistently produce. Lindholm picking up where he left off in April would be a welcome development on that front.
6. Casey Mittelstadt
This is a huge season for Mittelstadt. He had 59 and 57 points in back-to-back seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24 and, still in his mid-20s, seemed to be well on his way to establishing himself as a bona fide top-six center.
Then he dropped all the way down to 40 points in 81 games last season. The Avalanche traded him to the Bruins as part of the Charlie Coyle trade, clearly believing that Coyle was an upgrade. Mittelstadt recorded just six points in 18 games with Boston, albeit while playing with mostly career AHLers on the post-deadline zomB’s.
Mittelstadt has two years left on his contract with a $5.75 million cap hit – a fair number if he gets back to his 2022-24 levels, but an overpay if he doesn’t. His name popped up in trade rumors all summer, presumably because the Bruins are also unsure of what version of Mittelstadt they’re actually going to get moving forward.
It’s up to Mittelstadt to decide that. He enters camp penciled in as the No. 2 center. If he can take advantage of the opportunity, he can prove that he’s part of the solution in Boston and deserves to play that high in the lineup. If he can’t, then he’s a player the Bruins will likely be looking to move on from.
7. Tanner Jeannot
Aside from Don Sweeney himself, Jeannot kind of became the lightning rod of this Bruins offseason – through no fault of his own.
Unfortunately for Jeannot, fans and media alike have a lot of questions about the five-year, $17 million contract ($3.4M AAV) Sweeney handed him, especially since it wound up being the biggest contract the Bruins doled out in free agency this summer.
Jeannot had a breakout 24-goal, 41-point season in Nashville back in 2021-22, but he hasn’t had more than seven goals or 18 points in any of the last three seasons while bouncing from Nashville to Tampa Bay to Los Angeles.
Jeannot’s tenacious physicality and willingness to drop the gloves will be appreciated by teammates and fans alike, but the Bruins desperately need offense, and how much Jeannot can help there is very much in question. He’s getting paid a third-line salary, and he’ll probably start on the third line, but it’s now been four years since he’s produced at a third-line level.
8. Fraser Minten
Minten, like Mittelstadt, was acquired in March at the trade deadline (in Minten’s case, as part of the Brandon Carlo trade with Toronto). The 21-year-old center immediately became one of the Bruins’ top prospects – in fact, he may have briefly been their No. 1 prospect before the organization drafted James Hagens seventh overall in June.
After playing six games in Boston down the stretch and 19 more in Providence (including playoffs), Minten has a very real chance of making the Bruins out of camp this year. Of all the young forwards hoping to make a push, Minten’s defensive game and sturdy frame (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) may very well give him a leg up.
The question, though, is whether Minten’s offensive game is developed enough to stick. He has just five points in 25 NHL games between Boston and Toronto, and his AHL production (22 points in 45 games last year, including playoffs) doesn’t exactly jump off the page either.
Minten could probably be a good fourth-line center already. But the Bruins envision him being, at worst, their long-term third-line center. He will need to show he’s capable of producing like one before he runs with that job, though.
9. Matt Poitras
Poitras has made the Bruins out of camp each of the last two seasons. He has yet to stick around for a full NHL season, though.
Two years ago, Poitras suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in January and finished with 15 points in 33 games. Last year, he split the season between Boston and Providence. His AHL production was very good (45 points in 48 games, including playoffs). His NHL production (1 goal, 11 points in 33 games) left a lot to be desired.
Poitras is certainly going to get the opportunity to crack the opening night lineup once again. His offensive creativity and playmaking vision is something this team could use. But they also need him to be strong enough and good enough at avoiding hard hits to hold up at the NHL level. Poitras says he did put on some muscle this summer, so we will see if that makes a difference.
Poitras is a natural center, and he may very well be able to stick as a center, but the Bruins’ logjam down the middle could also bump him over to right wing, a position he has looked less comfortable playing to this point.
10. Mason Lohrei
As you may have heard, Lohrei had the worst plus/minus in the NHL last season (-43). He also had more points (33) than any other Bruins defenseman, a title made easier to capture by the injuries to McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm.
And that really is the plus and minus (pardon the pun) of Lohrei right now as he enters his third NHL season. The offensive talent is evident, and he can be a lot of fun to watch when he activates in the offensive zone. But his defensive play still needs a lot of work. He loses too many battles and makes too many mistakes in his own zone, which is part of the reason those minuses just started to snowball last year.
It’s why a two-year bridge deal wound up being the most logical option for both Lohrei and the team this summer. The Bruins get to see more from him before deciding if they want to commit long-term, and Lohrei gets more time to prove he’ll eventually be deserving of a bigger payday.
The returns of McAvoy and Lindholm should help ease Lohrei’s defensive burden a bit, but he’s still a player the Bruins will be counting on to take some big strides this season. In fact, Lohrei may very well start the season playing next to McAvoy, as that was a pairing that was actually pretty good last year (53.5% Corsi, 11-6 on-ice goal differential in 238 5-on-5 minutes together).