The late, great Pat Burns told the media during one of his four training camps as coach of the Boston Bruins that the cuts that define the opening-night roster are not necessarily the end of the competition and that players shouldn’t get too comfortable in the NHL or too discouraged in the AHL. He literally said that training camp extends into the regular season.
The Bruins are going back to the future with their uniforms this season.
Among the many reasons Fraser Minten won’t be satisfied with management’s decision to make the former Maple Leaf/Marlie an opening-night NHL Bruin is the 21-year-old centerman’s utter lack of complacency. Minten was asked by the pressing hoard of media following Saturday’s preseason finale at TD Garden – the varsity dress rehearsal – essentially how it felt to have made the team and how he enjoyed the moment. His response: “I wouldn’t say that,” he replied matter of factly, noting that there is plenty of work to do and that every day is a new day.
Players know what to say and, for the most part, they always mean it, even if they sound like they’re saying it because they know they’d better (management finds out). But the way Minten said it sounded like he was calming down a family member, as in let’s not be talking about how many tickets I get – and there it is.
Never mind his Alfred E. Neuman smirk, I’ll get this out there right now: In 15 years, Bruins fans might be talking about Minten the way they talk about Patrice Bergeron.
If you’re up for it, turn back the calendar 30 years to 1995:
As practice was winding down during the final season in the old Boston Garden, Rink Rap got to sit a few rows behind the glass with then-coach Brian Sutter to discuss a 34-year-old Raymond Bourque for a Hockey Stars magazine article.
Against the din of skates, sticks, pucks and the old Garden itself, a hockey cathedral so inviting you felt like you could hear a conversation clear across the rink and almost see around every exit door, Sutter hung an arm on the adjacent seat back, put a foot up as he watched his players tool around and pointed at Bourque, who was still on the ice working on his skills. Comparing his captain to Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan, Sutter said all the great ones have it; they share a sense of dread that they will wake up one day and not be able to do what they were able to do yesterday. They relentlessly work at their craft because they really believe they need to keep proving themselves.
Bumping forward to 2018 Media Day at Warrior Arena, where Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney was asked by The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont to reflect on his four years as Bourque’s defense partner and draw a comparison to Patrice Bergeron. Given the French Canadian connection (albeit Montreal vs. Quebec) and the two-decade, generational impact each made on the “Original 6” franchise, I thought the question to be especially insightful of KPD and hung around for the answer.
Noting that even Bourque could step away from the game, Sweeney said that Bergeron never stops thinking about hockey and how to improve. “He’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen…,” Sweeney told Dupes.
How good can Minten get?
Watching him play conflicts with his modest scoring totals both in the AHL as well as in the NHL. The interpretation here is that Minten has been typically matched up in a defensive role, that his offensive game is better than his stat line would suggest, and that the Bruins will incrementally explore that upside.
In speaking with the media on Saturday, Minten spelled out his priority on defense, explaining that the NHL has no home for him if he compromises his defensive game. At a tender age, he understands it’s far more certain that shoddy defense will hurt your hockey team than offensive efforts will help win. His foundation is in place.
After coming to Boston via the March 7 Brandon Carlo trade, Minten mirrored a young Bergeron (mirrored because Minten is a left shot). His tracking of the play on the forecheck, his ability to position himself in or around a puck battle or in the open ice, the wherewithal to make smart, effective, physical plays and his general readiness for hockey against men left zero doubt here that he would be in the Bruins lineup on Wednesday night when their 2025-26 season opens in Washington against the Capitals (7:30 pm, TNT, HBO max).
Despite Rink Rap’s unbridled enthusiasm from the first time watching Minten play, he has actually surpassed expectations in this camp. It began with his on-ice leadership at the Prospects Challenge, where he could be seen talking to multiple teammates before taking offensive-zone faceoffs.
When he was coaching the Bruins 25 years ago, Robbie Ftorek quizzed a few beat writers outside his office one day, asking us if we knew the most important responsibility of the centerman on the draw. Several good ideas were proposed, but none of us got it right. Ftorek is among the very best high school players in New England history, and despite his small stature carved out a professional career that saw the AHL, WHA and NHL. His answer: Make sure everyone else knows what he does if we win the faceoff and what he does if we lose it. It’s critical that a team works together as a unit in the first few seconds after a faceoff.
Howsoever faceoff strategy has evolved in the past quarter century, watching Minten whisper to his left winger, then his right winger, then look over his shoulder from the dot at the left point man and nod was great theater for just another powerplay during the Prospects Challenge.
The popular assumption with this kid has been limited offensive upside, bottom-six guy, maybe a Charlie Coyle-type horse as a finished product.
This is not a prudent assumption with Minten.
Let’s not forget that Bergeron wore the shutdown label for years but quietly worked on his offensive game, from his moves to shake opponents and free up playmaking opportunities (think primary assist on Marco Sturm’s OT-GWG at Fenway Park) to his one-timer (before David Pastrnak was the go-to in the left circle, guess who took on that job). Bergeron did these things not to prove anyone wrong, not to get a bigger contract, but because he sensed the need to give the Bruins something they lacked.
When Bourque’s and Bergeron’s careers were winding down, they were far different players than the ones who pounced on their rare opportunities to play in the NHL at age 18. Someone who should know told me Minten (21) has a long way to go but that he’s wired the right way.
In this context, “long way to go” did not mean that the former top Toronto prospect who had enjoyed only temporary stays on the Leafs’ loaded roster wasn’t going to make the Bruins this fall, only that this is the beginning of his career.
“Wired the right way” … well, what better examples are there?
Minten’s AHL assignment following the trade deadline was not a reflection on where Sweeney saw him coming into this season. He knew where the NHL Bruins were heading and wanted his best young player in a healthy environment where he had something to play for, a playoff-bound team with which to jell, and a leadership opportunity (Providence). That, by the way, is also why Matt Poitras was sent back down at the same time. Only Poitras finds himself preparing for the P-Bruins’ opener following his 11th-hour demotion from the just-concluded NHL camp.)
How this plot twists and turns as the Bruins dig into the new season with an evolving roster is difficult to predict, especially when one looks back into last season and why they suddenly became such a different hockey team.
The Fall of 2024 (pun intended), in which everything that could go wrong went wrong and then some, paved the way for a February 2025 scenario that detractors of in-season tournaments feared. The reeling Bruins were already down Hampus Lindholm (broken kneecap) when Charlie McAvoy was lost for the season with a complicated shoulder injury sustained on Joel Armia’s postwhistle, crosscheck from behind into the goal post in the 4 Nations tournament.
The 8-9-3 start had already cost Coach Jim Montgomery his job, and later in the season when management received a lengthy timeline on McAvoy, it coincided with news that Lindholm had hit a roadblock in his rehab. When it became apparent the Bruins were headed toward a contractual impasse with captain Brad Marchand, they decided it was time to break away from their last on-ice tie to 2011 but also from any regular whose long-term value no longer matched the futures offered in trade market.
In addressing the media on Monday at TD Garden, Sweeney alluded to the work of his pro scouts who insisted during pre-deadline meetings that Minten was a must-acquire if the Bruins were to go down this road. The ensuing flurry of trades harkened back to a decade ago when, in his first days on the job, Sweeney told his Hockey Operations personnel to saddle up for a bumpy ride and then immediately traded regulars Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic. The 2015 blowup wasn’t a trade deadline, but it was similarly impactful with matching purpose.
In Sweeney’s mind on both occasions, the Bruins as we had known them were over with. In both cases, the delayed effect of draft picks sacrificed at prior trade deadlines to bolster an annual run at the Stanley Cup was finally impacting their viability as a perennial playoff team, and the prospect pool needed a jumpstart.
OK, this is where any frustrated Bruins fan interrupts the one-way conversation to point out how poorly Sweeney drafted upon taking over for Cup-winning GM Peter Chiarelli in 2015, blowing the enviable position of three straight first-round picks (13-14-15). It was a fair criticism when one considers how many other teams in the next dozen spots hit on players more impactful to their franchise than Jake DeBrusk would ever be in Boston. What about the other two? That’s the point: Jakub Zboril and Zach Senyshyn have become answers to a snide trivia question.
Rink Rap won’t dismiss the chip on the shoulder (right next to the growling bear) of your No. 19 POULIN sweater. If there’s anyone who thinks yesterday can inform today, it’s this guy.
But since we’re on the subject now that the Bruins are taking as long to replace Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci as the Patriots have taken to replace Tom Brady, a question: Would Mat Barzal have been the answer? Ten years later, the Islanders have made one conference final, missed the 2025 playoffs, and are committed to five more years of Barzal at $9.15 million per.
In fairness to Sweeney’s critics, Barzal was only next in line, not the only player the Bruins could have tabbed. The newly filthy rich Kyle Connor, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Boeser and Travis Konecny were, after Barzal, among the next several players taken in that infamous draft.
In fairness to Sweeney and the Bruins’ amateur scouts, later rounds of that same draft produced Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon and goalie Dan Vladar (whom the Bruins just saw in the preseason). Sweeney has also been creative in recovering some diamonds in the rough of that draft, trading UFA signee Eric Haula to New Jersey for Pavel Zacha (sixth overall, 2015). If I were Sweeney and had such success bringing out the best in Zacha, Hampus Lindholm and Morgan Geekie, it would drive me nuts that AJ Greer (39th overall, 2015) was a dumb penalty waiting to happen in Boston but has become a folk hero in southern Florida.
Can’t win ’em all.
Like any draft, there were other spectacular misses by many other teams.
So, for the sake of setting the scene but not clinging to familiar old storylines needing to be put out of their misery, the 2025-26 Boston Bruins are retaining prime-age core pieces, restocking in the short term to compete for a playoff spot while at the same time planning to integrate young talent over the next few years.
Sweeney’s first team as GM (2015-16) missed the playoffs on the final weekend of the season, and this team could as well. But it should not be forgotten that, until last season, Sweeney’s teams averaged 50 wins per 82 games played.
It’s no wonder Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs remains confident that Sweeney can build this team back up. Team president Cam Neely told Monday’s Media Day gathering that the Bruins hoped to retool the offense in free agency but that, once those opportunities were canceled by several 11th-hour contracts with targeted UFAs’ 2024-25 teams, Boston’s strategy shifted toward a short-term investment in character and toughness (ie. Tanner Jeannot, Mikey Eyssimont, Sean Kuraly).
Offense won’t come in bushels for the Bruins, and it may not come via the UFA Class of 2026 (Jack Eichel has signed his extension in Las Vegas). No, the plan for the Boston Bruins will depend on the development of drafted players, particularly centers, now playing NCAA hockey. In the meantime, the Bruins cannot compromise their goaltending or team defense in an effort to win 42 or more hockey games, the Mason-Dixon Line for bubble teams in the NHL (assuming an average number of loser points against the playoff eight in the conference).
The 2025-26 Boston Bruins have the goaltending and defense core of a potential Stanley Cup contender and the forward lines of a team closer to the draft lottery than the conference final. Sweeney has a window of opportunity to adjust the overall trajectory in the trade market or via the development of players who will start the season in the AHL. They want to be a tougher out than they were last season. There is work to be done to become a tough out from a categorical perspective.
First impressions for the 2025-26 season will be made in tonight’s season opener against the Caps and Thursday’s home opener vs. Chicago at TD Garden.
TONIGHT’S EXPECTED LINEUP
39 Geekie – 28 E. Lindholm – 88 Pastrnak (A)
18 Zacha – 11 Mittelstadt – 71 Arvidsson
84 Jeannot – 93 Minten – 81 Eyssimont
92 Khusnutdinov – 52 Kuraly – 47 Kastelic
6 Lohrei – 73 McAvoy (A)
27 H. Lindholm (A) – 26 Peeke
91 Zadorov – 20 Jokiharju
1 Swayman
70 Korpisalo
Reserves: 43 Harris (LD); 19 Beecher (C-LW); 48 Viel (LW)
WHY’S AND WHEREFORE’S
Goal: Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo. The most surprising question I got all summer and through training camp was what will the Bruins do with Korpisalo, who was always going to be backing up Swayman this season. To no surprise, Michael DiPietro cleared waivers and is now with the Providence Bruins. That is no insult to DiPietro, the 2024-25 American Hockey League Goalie of the Year. It’s just reality that DiPietro remains unproven in the NHL. Based on how the Bruins have openly discussed their lack of scoring depth, moving out Korpisalo either because he makes $3 million/year (compounding the goalie-cap hit – Swayman makes $8.25M) or because he expressed dissatisfaction with his number of starts in 2024-25 makes zero sense. Bruins management should love Korpisalo’s attitude. At the end of the day, the goalies have to play well and give the Bruins a chance to win on most nights. Korpisalo was excellent during this camp, and so was Swayman but for one puck-handling faux pas. Where it concerns DiPietro, also note that teams generally want to see what they’ve got after spending an entire offseason setting the table. They want to try the home cooking before going out to eat. Camp upsets are almost like Group 2 offer sheets; it takes a special situation to see either happen.
Defense (see line chart above): Goaltending minus the drama. An under-the-radar thing Sweeney did was add a left-shot (New Englander Jordan Harris) to push Mason Lohrei, who should be in a better position to succeed with a healthy Hampus Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov sheltering him from matchups against top-end forwards. Charlie McAvoy, Henri Jokiharju and Andrew Peeke return to the right side. The one concern: Sturm has broken camp with three balanced pairings, skating Lohrei opposite McAvoy, with Peeke (now wearing 26 with Sean Kuraly back in his familiar 52) opposite Lindholm, leaving Zadorov and Jokiharju as the only returning D pairing. Every coach in pro hockey wants to find a balanced set of three D pairings to weather the 82-game load, and this season it becomes more important with the schedule busied by the Olympic break. Assuming for the sake of argument that Lindholm and McAvoy stay healthy in 2025-26, the biggest question on the Boston blue line is can Lohrei get back to the game as he knew it in the 2024 playoffs? He must improve his containment and coverage when Boston’s opponents have the puck in the attacking zone. Should Sturm determine in a third period or against a particular opponent that the defense needs to be top-four centric in terms of ice time and matchups, then we may see a 25-minute, Lindholm-McAvoy pairing.
Forwards (see line chart above): Head Coach Marco Sturm curtailed top-line tinkering fairly early in camp, recognizing that Morgan Geekie should play on his off-wing (right shot on LW) and doubling down on the incumbent top trio of Geekie, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak as established by 2024-25 Interim Coach Joe Sacco. The second line of Zacha, Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson will require Sturm’s patience, but they must defend, especially when they don’t score. Zacha, as he did under Montgomery a year ago, will start on LW. The question is will Sturm become compelled to move Zacha to the middle as Monty had shortly before getting the heave-ho at the 20-game mark. Zacha played well out of the gate last year when no other forward was, but Monty waited too long to move him to the middle where his relentless puck pursuit and second and third efforts had an expanded effect on the game. Mittelstadt, a top-10 overall pick in his prime years, has landed an incredible opportunity to elevate like Hampus Lindholm, Geekie and Zacha all have with the Bruins. Look for Minten (93) tonight between rugged newcomers Tanner Jeannot (84) and Mikey Eyssimont (81). Sweeney said Jeannot got a five-year deal because, over the next few years, the Bruins plan to integrate some of their prospects now playing in the AHL and NCAA, and he will be their big brother on the ice. Except for Jeannot, Boston’s UFA signees are only signed one or two years. There could be much in the way of line juggling and player movement should those middle-sixers (bottom niners?) not jell, score or in some significant manner perform to their potential. Marat Khusnutdinov is at a personal crossroads as the 23-year-old Russian forward looks to establish an identity in the NHL. The potential tag wears off soon, and journeyman Jeffrey Viel and familiar face Johnny Beecher are only too eager to get into the starting lineup.
THE DEMOTED
Along with center Matt Poitras, established American Hockey League point producers Matej Blumel and Alex Steeves will also start the season in Providence. The two cleared waivers, along with DiPietro. Poitras had started the prior two seasons in the NHL, the first of those because it was required (he would have gone back to junior), but he earned his NHL chance. Injuries cut that first season short, and last season Poitras was up and down, finishing the season in Providence. Poitras is a talented and determined center whose opportunities and special-teams reps will be far greater in the AHL, at least in the immediate. He’s got more work to do with his body to endure the NHL, but he is very close according to Sweeney. Rink Rap was nonetheless disappointed that Poitras did not make the cut. Minten could have played on his wing and helped with D-zone draws. Maybe we will still see this pairing in the NHL when injuries begin to take their toll. Rink Rap is enjoying learning Steeves’ game; the winger from Flint, Mich., just couldn’t find the handle with some glittering scoring chances in this camp. Did I mention the P-Bruins will be a great value this season? Georgii Merkulov, Fabian Lysell, and an improved Brett Harrison will have better support. A player to keep an eye on in Providence will be RW Dalton Bancroft, who scored a pair of preseason goals in Philadelphia, as the Bruins build his pro-hockey reps following a stellar NCAA career at Cornell.
THE DEPARTED
More is being asked of Brad Marchand in Florida with Alex Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk out of the lineup long term.
Justin Brazeau scored two goals in Pittsburgh’s stunning, opening-night 3-0 shutout of the Rangers in New York last night.
LESS IS MORE
Notice the sleeker Bruins’ uniform this season, a throwback to the final two decades of the old Boston Garden, albeit with a supermoon-sized spoked B (and with a friendlier shoulder bear).
BENCH BOSSES
Not only is Sturm running the bench this season, Steve Spott has been added to take over the powerplay. Spott ran the Dallas PP last season that finished among the top 10 in the NHL. He became available at the sudden firing of head coach Peter Deboer following the Stars’ Game 7 loss to Edmonton in the Western Conference final. Jay Leach and Chris Kelly are still on staff.
2024-25 Interim Coach Joe Sacco, a longtime Bruins assistant, now assists Mike Sullivan in New York.
LEGACIES LIVE ON
The Bruins announced during camp that Zdeno Chara has joined the management staff as an advisor/mentor whose help with coaches and players, especially developing players, especially especially developing defensemen, will be invaluable. Then the Bruins announced that Big Zee’s No. 33 is going to the TD Garden rafters on Thursday, Jan. 15, before the Bruins play the Seattle Kraken.
The Sports Museum is holding its annual Tradition fundraiser event on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at TD Garden, and the Bruins Legacy Honoree is Tim Thomas, who backboned the Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 2011. Guess who gets to write the article for the event program…
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 