After a long offseason, the NHL season is finally here. The Boston Bruins will have the chance to kick off their campaign against the Florida Panthers on a night that will see the first games of the 2024-25 regular season that will be played on North American soil. Bruins fans have plenty of reasons to be excited about their team, none larger than the recent signing of their all-world netminder, Jeremy Swayman. Here are three players that fans should keep a close eye on to kick off the new season.
Jeremy Swayman
Bruins fans should be over the moon about Swayman’s newly announced contract. It is a deal that both the player and the team should be pleased with, and most importantly it keeps him in Boston for another eight years. The team’s brass are putting their faith in their goalie to be the guy and they’re betting the future of their franchise on him to be the one who will take them to the promised land.
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That said, it remains to be seen how Swayman will play to kick off the new season. The last few months have been anything but typical; due to the two sides not agreeing on a contract until two days before the season started, Swayman missed out on training camp and the Bruins’ preseason games. He practiced with the Boston University hockey team in order to stay sharp. While there’s no doubt he will be back to being one of the best goalies in the NHL eventually, he may take some time to ramp up.
Elias Lindholm
Perhaps the Bruins’ most notable new face this season is Elias Lindholm. A top-line center, he was signed in free agency to address an obvious gap in their roster from a season ago. He will likely center a line with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak for a lot of this season, a trio that figures to be dynamic. Lindholm’s signing allows Zacha to move back to the wing, as he had been playing center to fill in for their lack of depth at the position last season.
At his best, Lindholm could provide a point-per-game presence, as he was in 2021-22 when he led the Calgary Flames to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has never played alongside a player as elite as David Pastrnak and, at 29 years old, Lindholm is in the prime of his career. In other words, he could be set to have a career year in his first season wearing the black and gold. If he were to play to the potential general manager Don Sweeney saw in him when he signed him to a seven-year $54.3 million contract this past summer, the Bruins should be in a great spot to contend for an Eastern Conference title.
Nikita Zadorov
Like Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov was brought over from the Vancouver Canucks. The Bruins handed him a six-year $30 million contract in an effort to beef up their blue line. At 6-foot-6, 248 pounds, he is one of the reasons the Bruins are now the heaviest team in the NHL. While that in itself is an advantage, particularly when it comes to the postseason and aiming to dethrone the physical Panthers, it will be encouraging to see the Bruins play to their size to start the NHL season. It will be a good sign for things to come for Bruins fans if players like Zadorov, Charlie McAvoy, and Brandon Carlo are throwing their weight around to start the season.
3 Key Players
Each of these three players received a long-term contract from the Bruins this past offseason, one forward, one defenseman, and one all-important goalie. The hockey faithful in Boston should feel good about the fact that their team has improved year over year. They locked down their netminder for the future, signed a top-line center in Lindholm, and beefed up their blue line with Zadorov. Each of these players provide reasons to be excited to see the product hit the ice.
