Another season has come and gone, and for the Boston Bruins, the 2024-25 campaign was one to forget. After the historic, record-breaking season of 2022-23, last year felt like a cold shower. The B’s missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016, a bitter pill to swallow for a team and a fanbase accustomed to contending. While there were a few bright spots – David Pastrnak doing Pastrnak things and Morgan Geekie having a career year – there were also a handful of guys who, to put it bluntly, didn’t pull their weight.
The Bruins made some big moves at the trade deadline, shipping out some familiar faces and bringing in some new blood. But as we look ahead to the 2025-26 season, the pressure is on for a few key players to step up and prove they’ve still got the goods. Let’s break down which Bruins need to have a big bounce-back year.
Elias Lindholm: The Big-Ticket Bust?
When the Bruins inked Elias Lindholm to a seven-year, $54.25 million deal last offseason, the expectation was that they were getting a bona fide top-six center. A guy who could help replace Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci and fill the massive void they left. What they got instead was a player who looked lost for long stretches of the season.
Lindholm finished the year with a respectable, but ultimately disappointing, 17 goals and 30 assists. For a player with a cap hit of $7.75 million, that’s simply not enough. He was a non-factor on many nights, and his defensive game, once a hallmark of his play, was inconsistent at best. It’s not like he was a complete anchor, but he was far from the top-tier, two-way force the Bruins paid for. He wasn’t driving play, he wasn’t creating enough scoring chances, and he often looked like a passenger on his own line.
For the Bruins to have any hope of returning to the playoffs this season, Lindholm needs to be a lot better. He needs to find his offensive game and start producing like a top-six forward. That means more shots on goal, more high-danger chances, and more points on the board. He also needs to get back to being a reliable defensive presence, a guy who can be trusted to shut down the other team’s top players. The B’s have a lot of money tied up in Lindholm, and they can’t afford for him to be a middle-of-the-road player. He needs to be a difference-maker, and he needs to start being one from the drop of the puck this season.
Jeremy Swayman: A Crisis of Confidence
After the Bruins traded Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators, the starting goaltender job was Jeremy Swayman’s to lose. And, well, he lost it. After a stellar 2023-24 season that saw him post a .916 save percentage, Swayman’s numbers plummeted to a career-worst .892 last year. He looked shaky and lacked the confidence that had made him one of the league’s best young goalies.
The Bruins’ defense certainly didn’t do him any favors – they were a tire fire for much of the season – but Swayman has to shoulder a lot of the blame. He was letting in soft goals at an alarming rate, and he never seemed to be able to make the big save when his team needed it most. He was pulled from a number of games, and he even lost his starting job to Joonas Korpisalo for a stretch.
For the Bruins to have any success this season, they need Swayman to get his swagger back. He’s got the talent to be a top-10 goalie in this league, but he needs to find his confidence and get back to playing with the kind of poise and athleticism that made him so successful in the past. That means being more aggressive in his crease, challenging shooters, and making the saves he’s supposed to make. The Bruins have a lot of question marks on their roster, but goaltending can’t be one of them. Swayman needs to be the rock in the back end that the team can rely on.
Mason Lohrei: The Plus/Minus Nightmare
It’s not often you see a player with a minus-43 plus/minus rating, but that’s exactly where Mason Lohrei found himself at the end of last season. The young defenseman had a brutal year, and that statistic is a glaring indictment of his play. While plus/minus isn’t the be-all and end-all of defensive metrics, it’s impossible to ignore a number that low.
Lohrei was on the ice for a ton of goals against last season, and he often looked overmatched and out of his depth. He was making bad reads, turning the puck over, and getting caught out of position on a regular basis. He’s still young and has a lot of raw talent, but he needs to take a massive step forward in his development if he’s going to be a reliable NHL defenseman.
For Lohrei, the focus needs to be on simplifying his game. He needs to make the smart, safe play instead of trying to do too much. That means getting the puck out of his own zone quickly and efficiently, and not trying to force passes that aren’t there. He also needs to get stronger and more physical in his own end. He’s got the size to be a force, but he needs to learn how to use it to his advantage. The Bruins have a lot of hope for Lohrei, but he needs to start showing that he can be a reliable defender at the NHL level.
Pavel Zacha: Time to Produce or Pack Your Bags
Pavel Zacha’s name was in the rumor mill for much of last season, and it’s not hard to see why. The 2015 first-round pick had a down year after back-to-back 21-goal seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24. He finished with a paltry 14 goals and 33 assists, and his play was often a source of frustration for Bruins fans.
If Zacha wants to stick around, he needs to have a big year and return to the form he showed in his first two seasons in Boston. He needs to be a more consistent offensive producer, and he needs to show that he can be a reliable two-way player. He’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2026-27 season, and if he has another mediocre year, the Bruins may decide to cut their losses and move on. The ball is in his court, and it’s time for him to show that he’s got what it takes to be a top-six forward in the NHL.
Created with the aid of Gemini AI