Now that Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney is getting down to his final offseason work of trying to reach common ground with goaltender Jeremy Swayman and minor league forward Marc McLaughlin on new contracts, it seems apropos to consider his top 25 players and isolate something about each one’s game.
Jeremy Swayman: The 50-something starts he will presumably make in his first NHL season as a number-one goalie (in more than uniform number) are uncharted territory, but in the playoff pressure cooker Swayman proved his mettle. The suspicion here is that, had Linus Ullmark still been sharing the net, the Bruins would not have signed Nikita Zadorov.
Joonas Korpisalo: Like Ullmark and Jaroslav Halak before him, this European journeyman is being brought from outside the playoffs into a positive, competitive environment where he can thrive and receive guidance from “Goalie Bob” Essensa, one of the best in the business of what he does.
Nikita Zadorov: How much “Radko” remains in Zadorov’s game is one question, and whether that’s a good thing is another. Opponents will immediately try to goad the 6-foot-6, 248-pound, Russian defenseman into the penalty box and, if they fail, they’ll do the chicken dance and see if that works. For Zadorov to help simplify the game for Charlie McAvoy, he has to tune out the noise.
Charlie McAvoy: Zadorov, Mason Lohrei and Hampus Lindholm will all see McAvoy during the 2024-25 regular season, but it’s the newcomer whose game will make McAvoy feel like he doesn’t have to be both Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer on every shift. This should result in a better version of McAvoy as the 26-year-old enters his prime years.
Hampus Lindholm: 2024-25 will be his fourth season as the original Lindholm in Boston’s lineup. Having set a very high bar in the early stages of the 2022-23 season, Lindholm was better in 2023-24 than widely credited. And he made the play that gave David Pastrnak the platform to torch the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 overtime. Expect Hampus to be more aggressive with the puck in 2024-25.
Brandon Carlo: The quiet man on Boston’s blue line has been the Bruins’ most consistent, bringing a sameness in his version of excellence that any Stanley Cup contender must have in its top four.
Mason Lohrei: The good news for Lohrei is that his 2024 statement playoffs have put the AHL in his rearview mirror. The bad news is the NHL world is not exactly his oyster. The Zadorov acquisition won’t stunt Lohrei’s growth but will allow his opportunities to occur in more favorable situations.
