Because of lackluster drafting in recent years, the Bruins had to add some good young talent to their organization.
Casey Mittelstadt is a 26-year-old center (seven years younger than Coyle) who was the No. 8 overall pick in 2017. He has underwhelmed this season with 34 points in 63 games, but in a larger role in Boston, he should be able to take his game to a higher level offensively.
Fraser Minten, a 2022 second-round pick of the Maple Leafs, is a physical player with an impressive shot. He projects to be a dependable two-way center at the NHL level.
Will Zellers was a third-round pick of the Avalanche in 2024. He leads the USHL with 37 goals in 40 games for the Green Bay Gamblers this season. He’s an exciting offensive player and immediately becomes one of the Bruins’ top-three prospects.
The Bruins also needed to acquire some quality draft picks, particularly first- and second-round selections, and they accomplished that objective. They’ve picked in the first round in just three of the last seven drafts. They’ve picked in the second round only twice in the last six drafts. It’s not a surprise the Bruins’ prospect pool ranks among the league’s worst. They haven’t drafted enough in the early rounds.
That’s about to change, though. The B’s have all of their own first-round picks in the next three years, plus the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2026 first-rounder, as well as five second-round picks through 2027. It’s been a very long time since the Bruins had so many early-round picks.
“You start to look at draft capital that we had been spending over a course of most of the years, it starts to take its toll,” Sweeney said. “And you do have to have a little bit of a step-back approach at times.”
Keeping all of these picks might not be the way to go if the Bruins envision a quick retool. They definitely need to use some of these first- and second-round picks to restock the prospect pool, but they now have valuable flexibility to use some of these selections to acquire impact players in the trade market.
That’s how Sweeney can accelerate this retool.
The Bruins came into the week with very few quality trade assets. Now they have a bunch. If there’s one thing Sweeney is really good at, it’s making trades. He’s won almost all of the big ones in his career. Sweeney also has been able to identify players in the past who, in a different situation and with more opportunity, could be better in Boston than they were with their previous teams. Two good examples are Coyle (acquired in 2019) and Pavel Zacha (acquired in 2022).
The Bruins are not without talent, even after this week’s tear down. They have a top 10 offensive player in right wing David Pastrnak, a true No. 1 defenseman in Charlie McAvoy and a player who should be a top 10 goalie (and has been in the past) in Jeremy Swayman. That’s three franchise pillars at three important positions.
Zacha is a quality forward who’s having a down season. Hampus Lindholm is a very good, top-four defenseman. Morgan Geekie has scored a career-high 22 goals this season at 26 years old. Young defenseman Mason Lohrei has taken a step forward in his development this season.
There’s a good core in place, but lots of work remains.
“We have a lot of guys. Now a couple of those guys in particular are injured that are big, big players and pieces for our group,” Sweeney said. “Now we have to do a better job of building around it and charting the course that says we’re back. And that’s the job.”
The Bruins went way too far in adding size and physicality last offseason. They came into the 2024-25 campaign as the tallest and heaviest team in the league. Toughness is great, and it’s needed in the playoffs, but speed and high-end offensive talent wins.
That’s what the Bruins need to acquire in the offseason: more speed and at least one more high-end offensive forward. The Bruins have ranked in the bottom third of the league in goals scored and power-play percentage all season. They need to generate more offense and play with more pace. This team is too slow.
After trading away so many veteran players this week, the Bruins now have more assets to trade for this kind of help.
If the right moves are made, a successful retool could take just one offseason and the Bruins could be back in the playoffs in 2026. But that will require some shrewd decisions by Sweeney. He’s built some really good teams since taking over as GM in 2015. This will be his toughest test yet.
“We know we’re sort of taking a step back in the course of the season because we haven’t been to the level we need to be,” Sweeney said. “But the mandate is, ‘Hey, let’s, let’s get this right and make the right decisions moving forward.’ And today was part of that. It wasn’t coming in today and saying, we’re doing every one of these moves. They have to present, materialize. And to the point of saying teams were aggressive, and does that present an opportunity? It does.
“It doesn’t mean you have to pull it and execute it, but it does present an opportunity. And that’s really what our fan base needs to hear, that we’re trying to put things in a position where we’re right back in that competitive mindset next year and doing things right.”
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