The Boston Bruins’ disappointing 2024-25 season came to an end Tuesday night at TD Garden with a 5-4 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils.
They finish with a 33-39-10 record and 76 points on the season, their lowest total in a full 82-game season since 2006-07, when they also had 76. They will finish with either the fourth- or fifth-worst record in the NHL, depending on what the Philadelphia Flyers do in their final game Thursday in Buffalo.
Now, the Bruins’ front office enters a critical offseason, one that could go a long way towards deciding whether this is going to be a quick retool or a longer rebuild for the franchise.
Here are five of the most important items on their to-do list:
1. Find the right coach
After firing Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19, the Bruins went through the rest of the season with Joe Sacco as interim head coach. Now it’s time to find their next non-interim head coach.
General manager Don Sweeney has been complimentary of the job Sacco has done after being put in an admittedly tough spot, and said on NESN last week that Sacco will be in the mix during this coaching search. Whether Sacco is actually a legitimate candidate, or that was just lip service, remains to be seen.
The Bruins will have other options both internally and externally. They loved the work Jay Leach did as Providence Bruins head coach from 2017-21. Leach now has four years of NHL assistant coaching experience – three in Seattle, and this season in Boston. Being connected to this year’s team may hurt him, however, if the organization just wants to rip off the band-aid and start anew.
Current P-Bruins head coach Ryan Mougenel, on his way to the AHL playoffs for a fourth straight year since taking over for Leach, is also highly thought of throughout the organization. The Bruins promoted from Providence with Bruce Cassidy, and that worked out nicely. Neither Leach nor Mougenel have NHL head coaching experience, though, while Cassidy did.
Outside the organization, there could be candidates both experienced and fresh-faced. If the Penguins move on from Mike Sullivan, would the Bruins consider bringing back the Marshfield native, who coached the B’s from 2003-06? How about Franklin native Peter Laviolette, who is seventh all-time in wins, if the Rangers let him go? Would either even want to join a retooling/rebuilding team?
In the college ranks, the Bruins could make a phone call to Boston University head coach Jay Pandolfo, who just took the Terriers to their third straight Frozen Four and who was an assistant with the Bruins from 2016-21. Pandolfo may enjoy his job security at BU, though, not to mention the opportunity to potentially coach his son there in a couple years. Denver’s David Carle, who already has two national championships and two World Junior gold medals at age 35, is the other hot name in college hockey. But again, he would have to be blown away by money, because no NHL team can offer the kind of job security he has right now.
Two former Bruins players who might warrant consideration: Marco Sturm and Marc Savard. Sturm has done well in three seasons as bench boss for the AHL Ontario Reign, and previously spent four years as an assistant for the Los Angeles Kings. He also coached the German national team to a surprise silver medal in the 2018 Olympics (played without NHLers). Savard is currently an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs, overseeing their lethal five-forward power play among other tasks. He has also been an assistant with the Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues, and he went 88-35-13 in two seasons as head coach of the OHL Windsor Spitfires from 2021-23.
Wherever they decide to turn, the Bruins need to find the right coach to mold a roster that is almost certainly going to be younger than we’re used to seeing in Boston.
2. Hit on this first-round pick
Duh. But the importance of this draft pick really can’t be overstated. The Bruins desperately need an infusion of young talent to move this retool forward. They have young players who can push for bottom-six forward jobs or third-pairing defense jobs, but they really need to start filling some top-of-the-lineup openings with homegrown players so they don’t have to keep to spending big via free agency and trades.
Getting more specific, the Bruins still need to find a No. 1 center of the future, and this draft pick may very well be their best shot at finding one, because the top 10 is loaded with center prospects. After Tuesday’s OT loss, the Bruins can pick no lower than seventh. If the Flyers pick up a point Thursday, Boston won’t be able to drop any lower than sixth.
If the ping pong balls break the Bruins’ way and they get up into the top two, they could take Michael Misa, the top center in the draft. Misa led the OHL with a whopping 134 points (62 goals, 72 assists) in 65 games for the Saginaw Spirit this season. That level of production in the OHL is comparable to John Tavares and Mitch Marner in their draft years. If the Bruins were to land the first overall pick, they would be faced with an interesting decision between Misa and defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who is the consensus No. 1 overall prospect.
If the Bruins miss out on Misa but stick in the top five, they’ll have a shot at one of the three centers widely believed to make up the next tier: James Hagens, Anton Frondell and Caleb Desnoyers. All three have No. 1 center upside, even if none of them are the lock that Misa appears to be.
Hagens registered 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 37 games as a freshman at Boston College this season. That’s very good, but it didn’t reach the freshman levels of Macklin Celebrini or Adam Fantilli, so Hagens slipped out of the No. 1 pick conversation. His combination of high-end skating and playmaking still makes him a tantalizing prospect, though, especially if he starts to defer a little less and look for his own shot more.
Frondell is more of a goal-scoring center, with arguably the best shot in the draft. His 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 29 games for Djurgardens in the HockeyAllsvenskan (the second tier of Swedish pro hockey) were good enough for the best points-per-game rate ever by an under-18 player in that league. Second and third on that list are a couple names you might recognize: William Nylander and David Pastrnak. Frondell is already physically mature at 6-foot-1, 198 pounds, and may not take long to break into the NHL.
Desnoyers might be the “safest” pick of these three centers, with a high floor, but maybe not quite as high of a ceiling. He’s a two-way center who doesn’t really have any holes in his game and who competes all over the ice. He’s been the best player on the QMJHL’s best team, with 84 points (35 goals, 49 assists) in 56 games for the Moncton Wildcats. He’s also an assistant captain at 17 years old. Desnoyers will have some bulking up to do, as he’s currently a bit of a beanpole at 6-foot-2, 178 pounds.
If the Bruins slide to six or seven in the lottery, there’s a chance all those centers will be off the board. That would likely leave them with a choice between winger Porter Martone or one of the next two centers – Roger McQueen or Jake O’Brien. Martone is almost universally ranked higher and brings an intriguing mix of size (6-foot-3, 208 pounds), physicality, attitude, playmaking and finishing.
McQueen is also big (6-foot-5, 197 pounds), and he has a very good shot, but he missed the bulk of this season with a back injury. O’Brien is more of a playmaker who has been steadily rising up draft rankings, including a somewhat surprising jump to fourth in the final NHL Central Scouting North American rankings. He’ll need to fill out his frame (6-foot-2, 172 pounds).
3. Extend Morgan Geekie and Mason Lohrei
The Bruins don’t have many pending free agents that they absolutely need to re-sign, but restricted free agents Morgan Geekie and Mason Lohrei top the list.
Geekie broke out in a massive way this season once he got moved up to the top line with David Pastrnak in late November. It’s crazy to think about now, but Geekie started the season getting healthy-scratched in five of the first 23 games under former coach Jim Montgomery, and scored just one goal in that time.
In 59 games since Nov. 27, however, Geekie scored a whopping 32 goals, tied for fourth-most in the NHL in that time. The only players to score more were Leon Draisaitl (36), Pastrnak (35) and Tage Thompson (33). Geekie’s 33 goals this season nearly doubled his previous career high of 17, and his 57 points blew past his previous best of 39.
After arriving in Boston on a two-year, $2 million AAV deal, Geekie has played himself into a sizable raise and potentially a long-term extension. Obviously he benefited from playing with Pastrnak, and shooting 22% (nearly double his previous career average) warrants some caution, but re-signing Geekie should nonetheless be a priority. He plays hard, he has some finishing talent, and – most importantly – he has some real chemistry with the Bruins’ best player.
Lohrei has not enjoyed as much success. His offensive numbers look good, as he finished fourth on the Bruins in assists (28) and fifth in points (33) as a 24-year-old, second-year defenseman. The defensive metrics, including a league-worst minus-43 rating, tell a different story, though.
Lohrei clearly still has a lot of work to do on the defensive side of his game, but he nonetheless remains a part of the Bruins’ future. They hope it’s as a top-four defenseman, but even if it’s only as a sheltered, offensive-minded third-pairing D who gets some power-play time, that can still be a valuable player.
That uncertainty around what Lohrei is going to be would seemingly lend itself to the idea of a bridge deal this summer being the best thing for all parties. The Bruins may not want to commit to Lohrei long-term just yet, and Lohrei may not want to lock himself in at a salary that will be influenced by a tough stretch run.
4. Add impact forwards
The Bruins are set to have around $27 million in cap space, with about nine NHL roster spots to fill. Some of that will be re-signing their own guys (see above) and filling depth spots with internal options. Regardless, they should have enough money for one or two impact additions in free agency.
As the Bruins learned last summer, you have to be careful with how you spend that free-agency money. They simply can’t afford to whiff like they did with Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, a situation that was further worsened by Jeremy Swayman drastically underperforming in year one of his big-money contract (more on that next).
That shouldn’t stop Don Sweeney and company from trying to add, though. In fact, they need to, especially up front. David Pastrnak is amazing, but he desperately needs some help when it comes to carrying the offensive load.
The biggest name that could hit the market is Mitch Marner, who hasn’t yet gotten an extension done with the Maple Leafs. Fresh off his first 100-point season, Marner, who is about to turn 28, could be in line for an average annual value of $14 million or more. It would be a massive swing for the Bruins, and maybe wouldn’t quite be the perfect fit given that Marner and Pastrnak are both right wings. But, it would give them another bona fide offensive star capable of driving a line. No other player available this summer could change the Bruins’ offensive fortunes as immediately as Marner.
If it’s not Marner, then maybe Nik Ehlers, a well-rounded winger who is generally good for 25-30 goals and 55-65 points and who just turned 29. Or perhaps Sam Bennett, a wanted man around these parts, but also a Stanley Cup winner who would quickly become a fan favorite with his abrasive style of play. The 28-year-old center just had his first 50-point season and is more of a middle-six player than a top-of-the-lineup option, which might create a logjam on a team that needs a No. 1 center and wing help more than another second- or third-line center.
Brock Boeser might look appealing on paper (28 years old, 40 goals in 2023-24), but he is an inconsistent, one-dimensional player with a bad habit of disappearing. He doesn’t drive play himself and needs to be with linemates who will set him up. Buyer beware on Boeser, as well as former Bruin Ryan Donato, who just doubled his career high in points while playing big minutes on a bad team. His next team may be paying for a one-year outlier.
Most of the other top free-agent forwards are aging veterans who wouldn’t seem to fit the Bruins’ timeline. Of course, one of them is Brad Marchand. Neither side closed the door on a reunion after the March 7 trade that sent him to Florida, so we should probably leave it ajar as well, however unlikely said return may seem.
Other options include trading some of their newfound draft capital for a top-nine forward, or utilizing an offer sheet to pry away another team’s restricted free agent. Typically a rarity, teams may be shifting their approach towards offer sheets after the Blues’ successful double offer sheet last summer to snag Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg from the Oilers. Two names to watch on that front: the Maple Leafs’ Matthew Knies and the Rangers’ Will Cuylle, a pair of young power forwards who can score.
5. Fix Jeremy Swayman
Last but certainly not least. This is ultimately going to be more on Swayman than the team, but the Bruins nonetheless need to make sure Swayman is able to reset his game this offseason and arrive at training camp in a much better place.
We know that last offseason was tumultuous for Swayman. His tense contract negotiations dragged all the way through the preseason and spilled over into a public war of words – which was partly his fault and partly Cam Neely’s. Swayman seemed to be playing catch-up all season, while also trying to handle the No. 1 job for the first time, and never found the level of play that made the Bruins want to lock him up long-term in the first place.
The final numbers aren’t pretty: 22-29-7 record in 58 games with an .892 save percentage and 3.11 goals-against average. Among 53 goalies who made at least 25 starts, Moneypuck has Swayman 46th in goals saved above expected (minus-9.1).
Bouncing back in year two of this eight-year deal is non-negotiable. If Swayman does, everyone can pretty much forget about this season and just move forward. If he doesn’t, then the Bruins have a massive problem on their hands and no easy solutions for it.