The Boston Bruins are keeping their feel-good breakout stories around. A week after signing defenseman Jonathan Aspirot to a two-year extension, the Bruins announced on Wednesday that they have now extended forward Alex Steeves for two more years as well. The deal is worth $1.625 million per year.
Like Aspirot, the 26-year-old Steeves had pretty much been a career AHLer prior to this season. In Steeves’ case, he had at least played NHL games – but only 14 of them spread across his four years in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.
Steeves, a native of Bedford, NH, signed a one-year deal with Boston over the summer as an unrestricted free agent in search of more opportunity. He had a good training camp and preseason, but was ultimately one of the Bruins’ final cuts.
After clearing waivers, Steeves started the season in Providence, where he had eight points in nine games. He got called up in early November and hasn’t looked back since, earning regular playing time in Boston.
Steeves has 14 points (8g, 6a) in 33 games with the Bruins while averaging 12:24 time on ice. He has been an effective forechecker and physical presence, with his 117 hits ranking fourth on the team. Coach Marco Sturm has also used him on both special teams units.
Steeves’ best stretch came from Nov. 26 to Dec. 23, when he scored seven goals in 13 games. He has gone quiet since then, though, going 12 games without a goal while notching four assists in that time. Sturm has noted that Steeves is working through some inconsistency that can be common for players who are in their first full NHL season.
This extension would seemingly be a sign that general manager Don Sweeney and company believe Steeves can work his way out of this slump, get back to being an impact player, and continue to establish himself as a full-time NHLer.
If they’re right, it will certainly be another feather in the cap for Sweeney and the Bruins’ pro scouting staff, who have made a habit of finding some diamonds in the rough that were being under-utilized and undervalued elsewhere. Morgan Geekie is the best example of that, but Steeves, Aspirot and Marat Khusnutdinov all qualify as well.
Steeves will likely best be deployed as a bottom-six winger moving forward, although he has shown some Swiss Army knife ability to play up in the lineup, most notably when he was part of an effective line with Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm (6-3 goal differential, 54.4% expected goals in 100 minutes together).
The Bruins now have 12 forwards signed for next season. In fact, the only forward currently on the roster who is not signed for 2026-27 is Viktor Arvidsson, a pending unrestricted free agent. The Bruins also have six defensemen and both goalies signed for next season, and are projected to have $17.4 million in cap space this offseason, according to PuckPedia.
That actually puts them in a pretty interesting position. Sweeney could obviously free up even more cap space if he ends up selling again before the trade deadline. Or he could keep this team mostly intact as it battles for a playoff spot and look for opportunities to land a big fish or two to fill out the roster moving forward. While the deal ultimately fell through, that was the thinking behind Sweeney’s recent pursuit of defenseman Rasmus Andersson.