It is evident to effectively everyone that follows the sport that Boston was in “All or nothing” mode this season. Ultimately, they had to settle for the latter, getting bounced from the postseason in seven games in round one by the Florida Panthers after a record shattering regular season. They made good moves at the deadline to equip themselves to take the next steps, but ultimately, their aspirations still eluded them. The team now has to face their salary cap realities (and already has, as we will cover) and the changing of tides. Here, we will evaluate how they are doing so to this point, as well as the effects of what has befallen upon them.

The biggest change is, of course, the departure of Patrice Bergeron by way of retirement. It is not surprising that the nineteen-year veteran, six-time Frank J. Selke Trophy winner and possible Hall of Fame two-way forward called it a day, but it is a tremendous hit to their forward depth. There is also very reasonable speculation that UFA David Krejci is out the door. The Czech has lost his defensive tenacity at this late stage in his career and is generally a shell of his former self, but the implications are worrisome given that this positions Boston to have Pavel Zacha as their primary C. Not a bad player, but not who you want to lead the charge down the middle. This is a dangerous situation for the Bruins to be in. The team also had to sacrifice Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to the salary cap gods, and those losses will be felt, as well. Trade deadline rentals Dmitry Orlov and Tyler Bertuzzi have left, also, to the disappointment if not the surprise of many fans of the Black and Gold, with the former further demonstrating his reliability as a respectable point-share hoarder and top 4 defenseman and the latter becoming a fan favorite for his grittiness. Fellow rental Garnet Hathaway also has signed a two-year deal with Philadelphia, Tomas Nosek has parted ways and signed with New Jersey, and Anton Stralman has departed for his native Sweden.

But let us talk about the signings. Right-handed D Kevin Shattenkirk appears to be the replacement for Connor Clifton and is coming in on a one-year deal worth $1.05 million. The 34-year-old has some offensive upside left, putting up 4 goals and 23 assists for Anaheim last season. It is an alright signing for that price and is smart in that it has no future commitment. We will see how his body holds up, but it is a respectable acquisition with some flexibility going forward. Don Sweeney also signed James van Riemsdyk to a one-year, $1 million deal. JVR is capable of producing 20 goals a year, but consistency and reliability is a bit of a question mark from him and more or less always has been. This past season with Philadelphia, he put up paltry numbers of 12 goals and 17 assists in 61 games played. That said, him on the second or third line with consistency in front of the net would make this a good one-year experiment for the Bruins. Next, we have a reunion… With regards to the team signing Milan Lucic to a one-year, $1 million contract, about all I can say is at least Sweeney did not overinvest. Lucic is bringing toughness, but his goal scoring has declined over the years in contrast with him being a legit power forward in his first stint in Boston where a 30-goal season was fair to expect and his speed, which was already not a primary strength to put it one way, has only trended downwards. This one will put rear-ends in seats for nostalgics but will not yield much benefit to the team. Morgan Geekie was also given a two-year, $2M AAV deal and is expected to play a bigger role than in years past with the shake up to the forward core. This might be a tall ask given his past season was his most productive but only yielded 28 points in 61 games and it is looking like a sign of a downgrade. Other signings/re-signings include Patrick Brown, Reilly Walsh, Michael DiPietro, Alec Regula, Ian Mitchell, and Jesper Boqvist, amongst other small-time deals. Trent Frederic has now also agreed to a two-year deal prior to his arbitration hearing, and G Jeremy Swayman notably has also been signed to a one-year deal upon settlement of his own arbitration.

Having been a team with a “win now” mentality, Boston entered the 2023 NHL Entry Draft without much draft capital. They had no selections in rounds 1 and 2 due to the Orlov/Hathaway and Lindholm trades. Continuing their recent propensity for drafting American players, Sweeney and the front office drafted USHL product/Quinnipiac commit C Christopher Pelosi. While Pelosi has shown signs in his junior career of offensive promise and decent physical attributes (his numbers at the AAA level were quite good, scoring at an above a point-per-game pace, and he performed at a respectable clip of 13 g, 6 a, 19 p in 43 games played for Sioux Falls last season), I would not exactly call this selection a steal. Further American centers were picked in the form of Beckett Hendrickson and Ryan Walsh, who are effectively in the same category wherein their max potential does not look to be particularly high. The Bruins also showed some interest in adding size to their prospect pool by adding Casper Nassen and Kristian Kostadinski to round out their selections. Overall, this seems to be maintaining the status quo for Boston’s prospect pool, wherein it is mostly filled with young players who will top out most likely at good role fillers. At the moment, the future outlook is not exactly glowing in terms of the pipeline for the Bruins.

Overall, Boston was more or less guaranteed to be in a precarious spot after the season that, in the end, got away. However, even bearing that in mind, while there have been some relatively positive spots in the beginning of the next phase, there is still much to be desired. In the end, I will be giving Boston a C- for their offseason performance to this point. Their free agency might be worthy of a B range grade on the higher end (primarily because of what possibilities they are leaving open rather than the player signings themselves), but the Bruins had a pretty unflattering draft, and have many reasons to expect that not only will they fall short (of course) of the standards set by last year’s regular season, but perhaps even be a noticeably worse team without much to look forward to. It could possibly be a dark age for this Original Six franchise in the coming years, but there is also a decent chance that Sweeney can do something with the fair amount of flexibility that he is attempting to set himself up with. The team is projected to have around $30 million dollars in cap space next offseason, Sweeney is doing some work to keep his options open, and that cap space total could increase depending on the rise in the league’s cap. If he makes good moves within that operating space, the team will be contending again in fairly short order.