The Boston Bruins’ journey in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs lasted just six games, and now a very pivotal offseason awaits the franchise as it searches for ways to become a true title contender again.
The Buffalo Sabres eliminated the B’s with a 4-1 win in Game 6 of their first-round series Friday night at TD Garden. It was a frustrating series for the Bruins. They blew a 2-0 third-period lead in Game 1, coughed up another lead in Game 3 and then gave one of the team’s worst postseason performances ever in Game 4.
Overall, the season was undoubtedly a success for the Bruins. Very few experts and analytics models predicted Boston would make the playoffs one year after finishing with the NHL’s fifth-worst record. But to their credit, the B’s were in a playoff spot the majority of the season.
Jeremy Swayman bounced back from a tough 2024-25 campaign and was a top-five goalie and Vezina Trophy finalist. Many of the team’s young players, such as center Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov, took positive steps in their development. David Pastrnak is still a 100-point player.
So, what now for the Bruins? How should they attack the upcoming offseason? Do they stay the course of their retool or look to accelerate the process and make some bold moves?
There’s an argument to be made for staying the course, continuing to draft well, developing young players at the NHL level and not sacrificing premium assets to make short-term upgrades.
But the obvious path for the Bruins is accelerating this retool.
The case for offseason upgrades
They punched above their weight all season, and assuming they will perform at a similar level (especially offensively) next year without making substantial upgrades is a huge risk.
The analytics crowd was skeptical of the Bruins’ success all year. The B’s scored 15.45 goals above expected at even strength during the regular season, per Natural Stat Trick, which led the league. They also ranked seventh in shooting percentage at even strength. Several players, including Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt, posted career high-shooting percentages.
A scoring regression seemed inevitable, and it came in the playoffs. The B’s scored only five goals in the last four games combined against the Sabres. The power play, which ranked third-best in the league entering the Olympic break in February, ranked 28th the remainder of the regular season and scored on just two of its 16 opportunities in Round 1.
That’s a steep regression.
“You look around the playoffs now and how goals get scored — everything is in the paint,” B’s head coach Marco Sturm said after Game 6. “And for some reason, we didn’t get there. We didn’t get those garbage goals we needed this time of the year. It was just not enough. If you look at Buffalo, they scored a lot of (those kinds of) goals. I think that was a big difference.”
Great goaltending also masked some of the defensive issues that popped up throughout the season. Swayman bailed out the B’s in a lot of games. He ranked No. 2 in goals saved above expected and No. 3 in wins above replacement for goalies, per MoneyPuck.
The best case for accelerating this retool is that the Bruins’ core players are in the win-now portion of their careers. The Bruins aren’t an old team by any means, but their best players aren’t exactly young, either.
- Morgan Geekie, LW, 27 years old
- Jeremy Swayman, G, 27
- Charlie McAvoy, D, 28
- Pavel Zacha, C/W, 29
- David Pastrnak, RW, 29
- Elias Lindholm, C, 31
- Nikita Zadorov, D, 31
- Hampus Lindholm, D, 32
- Viktor Arvidsson, LW, 33 (UFA this summer)
Pastrnak was asked to describe his emotions after losing to the Sabres in Game 6 and gave a telling answer.
“Of course it’s disappointing,” Pastrnak said. “I’m turning 30 in a couple weeks. Had one sniff at the Cup so far. It gets harder every single year. … You don’t want to waste any opportunity.”
Anyone drafted this year is probably not going to be an impact player at any point during the rest of the above players’ primes. If rookie James Hagens is the real deal, maybe he becomes a top-six forward in this window, but it would be unrealistic to expect a 2026 draft pick to be a franchise player in 2028 or 2029.
Potential trade targets for Bruins
So, what would be a move to accelerate the retool and win now?
Making a bold trade for someone like St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas is one example.
Thomas is a legit top-six center and he’s only 26 years old. He tallied 64 points in 64 games this past season and posted 80-plus points in each of the previous two campaigns.
Thomas is an elite playmaker and can score 20-plus goals. He’s also signed through 2029-30 to a team-friendly contract that carries an $8.125 million salary cap hit.
The cost to acquire Thomas, or a similar player, via trade would understandably be very high.
The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford reported on Feb. 26 that the Blues were seeking “three first-half-of-the-first-round assets ahead of the trade deadline. For example, that could mean an established young player, a drafted prospect and a draft pick who were all selected or could be taken in the first 15 or so picks.”
Thomas was rumored to be available before the trade deadline back in March, but the Blues ended up holding on to him.
Another potential trade target for teams in need of scoring is Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson. He’s not a center, but he’s one of the league’s top goal scorers, and the Bruins could certainly use another one of those players, too. Robertson scored a career high 45 goals with 51 assists this season, and has scored 35-plus goals in four of the last five seasons.
The Stars were eliminated in the first round of this year’s playoffs, but it wasn’t Robertson’s fault. He tallied eight points (five goals, three assists) in six games against the Minnesota Wild.
The Stars are in a bit of a salary cap dilemma, and Robertson is an RFA this summer. He could re-sign with the Stars, and they’d be foolish not to pay him. But if he did become available, the Bruins would be wise to at least call the Stars and see what it might take to pry Robertson out of Dallas.
The cost to acquire Robertson via trade and then sign him to a huge long-term deal would obviously be high, but it would be worth it for an elite offensive player who is just 26 years old.
Bruins’ biggest roster need
The Bruins have plenty of quality trade assets, including some good young NHL players, several talented prospects and five first-round picks over the next three drafts. If they decide to use any of these assets to bring in an impact player, it should be a forward.
The Bruins’ No. 1 roster weakness is a lack of elite forwards, specifically at center. Pastrnak is the only high-end forward on the team. He just posted a fourth consecutive 100-point season. Geekie scored 39 goals but can also be a little streaky. The B’s have some other good forwards, but no one who is going to dominate the opponent’s scouting report besides Pastrnak.
Pastrnak was the only Bruins player to eclipse 70 points this season. Only four other 2026 playoff teams — the Ducks, Kings, Flyers and Penguins — had one or zero 70-point scorers. The Lightning and Canadiens, who both play in the Bruins’ division, had four each. Six of the eight teams that advanced to Round 2 have two players with 70-plus points.
If you look at the last 10 Stanley Cup winners, they all had a legit No. 1 center (or two in some cases).
- 2024 and 2025 Panthers: Aleksander Barkov
- 2023 Golden Knights: Jack Eichel
- 2022 Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon
- 2020 and 2021 Lightning: Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point
- 2019 Blues: Ryan O’Reilly
- 2018 Capitals: Nicklas Backstrom
- 2016 and 2017 Penguins: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin
The Bruins haven’t had a real top-six center since Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired after the 2023 playoffs. Elias Lindholm was supposed to be a top-six center when he signed a seven-year, $54.25 million free-agent contract in 2024. But he has been a huge disappointment so far.
Whether it’s Thomas, Robertson or someone else, the Bruins have to add another premium forward before next season. Hagens has the potential to be that kind of impact player, but will the Bruins want to wait until he develops into that?
Running it back with a similar roster next season makes no sense. It would likely result in another first-round exit.
The current Bruins core is solid. But it’s not a championship-winning core. A high-end player or two must be brought in before next season, or we will be having this exact same conversation in May of 2027.
