The Boston Bruins head into the 2025-26 season unburdened by the expectations that have always been on them in the NHL’s salary cap era.
Many pundits (this one included) don’t see the Bruins as being a Stanley Cup playoff team this season, but veteran Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy believes his team can stop its playoff drought at just one season.
“We got everything to prove,” McAvoy told Sportsnet this week. “This the first time in my career that we’re going into this year probably not being a playoff team by a lot of people’s metrics. We’re a playoff team every day of the week, in my mind… We have everything we need. We have more than enough on this roster to be (a playoff team).”
It’s undeniable the Bruins have some key components – McAvoy and star right winger David Pastrnak, in particular – but the drop-off in skill from the top of Boston’s roster to its bottom is pretty steep.
Besides Pastrnak, who had an impressive 106 points last year, Boston’s next-leading scorer is Morgan Geekie, who had just 57 points. Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha had 47 points. These are not playoff-quality numbers up top, and depth forwards Casey Mittelstadt, Tanner Jeannot, Viktor Arvidsson haven’t been producing like they used to.
On defense, McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm make a strong first pairing, and it was a huge struggle for Boston to adapt when they were injured last year. Having them healthy will help a lot. Mason Lohrei shows promise, while Nikita Zadorov is a notable defensive defenseman. But Andrew Peeke doesn’t provide as much two-way play as Zadorov does, and Henri Jokiharju had 10 points in 60 games last season.
Let’s give McAvoy the benefit of the doubt – we’ll slot in the Bruins for a wild-card berth, but which team do you take out of the playoff equation to open that slot for Boston? The Ottawa Senators? Nope, their team is clearly deeper than the Bruins, with better special teams and more effective goaltending last season. The Montreal Canadiens? They’re probably closer to Boston in overall talent, but still, we’d say Montreal is a better team than Boston.
The Detroit Red Wings may be another story, and same with the Buffalo Sabres. Eighth place in the Atlantic Division isn’t a sure thing for Boston. That said, BetMGM‘s odds of the Bruins making the playoffs are at 4.75 (+375). The Sabres are at 3.75 (+275), and the Red Wings are at 3.30 (+230), according to BetMGM.
You can’t feel good about taking a hunch on this Bruins team, which appears destined for tougher conversations about its direction next summer. But for now, we don’t agree with McAvoy that Boston has all the tools. Some tools? Sure. All of them? No.
The changes Boston did make this summer certainly don’t make them significantly more skilled. Instead, they focused on grittier veterans to make the team a tougher team to play against, but not necessarily an offensive threat when Pastrnak’s not on the ice. This is why few people are picking the Bruins for a big turnaround.
So much has to go right, including good health, a quick adjust to the systems of new coach Marco Sturm and bounce-back years from veterans, such as Elias Lindholm and goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
If they don’t get all those things, it could prove to be a long season. Even if Boston veterans are setting a higher bar than that.
“(O)ur standards don’t deviate, regardless of what people think we may or may not be.” McAvoy said. “We went out and got (newcomers including Arvidsson, Jeannot and Sean Kuraly) that are going to make us a tough team to play against. So, I think we’re going to buy into that as best we can, and we’re going to be a tough out.”
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