With the Boston Bruins’ season ending Friday night with a 2-1 Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers, all eyes now turn to general manager Don Sweeney and a critical offseason.
Sweeney’s priorities should be clear: Lock up Jeremy Swayman, and add more offense, preferably at the center position.
Both of those needs came into crystal clear focus this postseason. In his first playoff run as a clear No. 1 goalie, Swayman was outstanding. He started 12 of Boston’s 13 postseason games and allowed two goals or fewer in nine of them. His .933 save percentage ranks first among all goalies this postseason by a considerable margin.
Sweeney had to play hardball with Swayman last summer because of the team’s salary cap situation. After a contentious arbitration process, the two sides settled on a one-year, $3.475 million deal. Swayman made it clear on multiple occasions how much he hated going to arbitration.
Technically, Swayman is arbitration-eligible again as a restricted free agent. It would be a disaster if negotiations came to that this time around. Swayman has earned a long-term extension and No. 1 starter money. He will likely at least double his salary.
It may still take some time before the two sides land on the final number, but Sweeney should know now that Swayman is the Bruins’ goalie of the present and future, and that locking him up is a necessity. In a related move, he will almost certainly have to revisit the Linus Ullmark trade market and move his $5 million off the books.
Despite his terrific individual play, Swayman ended up with a 6-6 record this postseason. That is because the Bruins did not provide him with nearly enough run support. They scored two goals or fewer in eight of their final nine playoff games.
“You can’t win every game 2-1,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery stated bluntly Friday night.
We could get into X’s and O’s reasons for why the offense struggled and line combinations and all that, but ultimately this is an Occam’s razor situation. As many of us believed way back in training camp, this Bruins roster simply didn’t have enough offensive firepower on it.
David Pastrnak had another terrific regular season, putting up 110 points. No one else was within 40 points of him, with Brad Marchand second at 67. Charlie Coyle (60) and Pavel Zacha (59) were the only other Bruins to top 50 points.
Pastrnak did not produce enough in the playoffs (4 goals, 4 assists in 13 games), but the Bruins did not have enough players capable of picking up the slack and helping him out.
Marchand did his part, putting up 10 points in 11 games. His absence for two and a half games in the second round hurt. Jake DeBrusk stepped up in a big way, leading the team in goals (5) and points (11) this postseason.
Whether the Bruins re-sign DeBrusk is one of the biggest questions facing Sweeney this summer. His regular-season inconsistency can be maddening, although DeBrusk revealed Friday night that he was dealing with a broken hand that affected his play in the second half. But he has grown into a stellar two-way player, and he has produced in the playoffs (he also had six points in seven playoff games last year).
If the Bruins don’t re-sign DeBrusk, they will need another scoring wing to replace him – preferably a better, more consistent scorer who can also upgrade a power play that finished the season on life support. Florida’s Sam Reinhart (six points against Boston in this series) and Carolina’s Jake Guentzel would be at the top of the free-agent class if they aren’t re-signed by their current teams, although it’s unclear if Sweeney would splurge for either.
The bigger need up front is at center. Coyle and Zacha did an admirable job in the regular season of stepping into the top two spots vacated by Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. In the playoffs, they combined for two goals and 11 points. Zacha got moved to wing, and then down to the third line.
Morgan Geekie slid up in the lineup and did score four goals, but his game remains best suited to a third-line role. Matt Poitras will be back for the start of next season, but he has a long ways to go before he enters any first-line center discussions.
Simply put, the Bruins didn’t and don’t have the No. 1 center that nearly every Stanley Cup team has. They couldn’t match Florida’s Aleksander Barkov, who had a series-high eight points.
Acquiring a No. 1 center is not easy, but Sweeney must do everything he can to find one this summer. Sweeney was limited by the Bruins’ cap situation last summer and leading up to this season’s trade deadline. He enters this offseason with a projected $21 million in cap space, and possibly $5 million more if he’s able to move Ullmark.
There are not many great options in free agency, but Sweeney could certainly circle back on Elias Lindholm, whom the Bruins had been linked to in numerous trade rumors both before and after Vancouver acquired him from Calgary. After a quiet start to his Canucks tenure, Lindholm has stepped up with nine points in 11 playoff games. He is also great on faceoffs, another area where the Bruins desperately need help.
If it’s not Lindholm, Sweeney could explore the trade market, although that presents its own challenges. The Bruins do not have a pick in the first three rounds of the 2024 draft. They don’t have a second- or fourth-round pick in 2025. They are thin on blue-chip prospects. Mason Lohrei should now be untouchable, as he looks like a legitimate top-four defenseman moving forward.
Ultimately, the 2023-24 season was more or less what most fans and analysts expected it to be: A transition year that featured some positive development from a few young players and a net takeover from Swayman, but also saw the Bruins’ shortcomings up front and down the middle of the ice get exposed in the end.
Locking up Swayman should be the easy part of Sweeney’s summer. Finding a No. 1 center and improving the offense will be harder, but that is the challenge Boston’s general manager faces as he tries to elevate this roster to true Cup contender status.