Barring any major trades that shake up the roster, the Boston Bruins’ lineup has very few openings for players to earn a job out of training camp. Before free agency, the opposite was true and the team had an opportunity to allow their logjam of young players the chance of an increased role at the NHL level. Instead, the team opted to acquire players who may be safer options due to experience but don’t offer the same upside as some prospects in the system. Still, a few spots remain for select prospects to compete. Beyond the players already in the system before the 2025 draft and free agency, two interesting names who could vie for spots are Alex Steeves and Matej Blumel.
Steeves joined the Bruins on a one-year contract worth $850,000 following a very impressive 36-goal, 52-point campaign with the Toronto Marlies in the AHL last season. The 25-year-old spent the last four seasons in the Maple Leafs organization and, though consistently scoring in the AHL, hasn’t gotten many opportunities at NHL ice time. In essence, Steeves can almost be viewed in a similar light to another Bruins’ prospect in Georgii Merkulov, a talented young forward who has shined in the AHL with very little NHL experience to speak of.
Limited NHL Opportunities Despite AHL Success
Even in the games Steeves played at the NHL level, he was given very little ice time due to the nature of how the Maple Leafs’ roster was constructed. For his career, he’s averaged just 9:04 of ice time in 14 NHL games, and in 9:53 of ice time through seven games last season, he scored one goal and recorded an assist while averaging just one shot per game.
When discussing why the Bruins were interested in signing Steeves and Blumel, Sweeney attributed their consistent AHL production as the reason.
“They’ve done what they need to do at the AHL level in terms of scoring at a high, high level with consistency. There are a number of players around the league that have gone through this and when they’ve gotten their opportunity, they’ve taken advantage of it,” Sweeney said of the signings. “The conversations we had with both Matej and Alex were, ‘If you’re gonna score at the National Hockey League level, we want you here not anywhere else.’ We provided that opportunity today and they’re excited about it. If they take the job of somebody that believes they’re an incumbent, that’s what happens in the National Hockey League when a guy gets passed. Internal competition, organizationally, we talked about getting back to having. We’re hoping that they’re going to take advantage of that opportunity.”
It’s interesting that Sweeney phrased his comments on the signings like this, especially given the fact that the team really hasn’t afforded Merkulov the opportunity to prove he can flourish with a bigger role. Despite this, there’s absolutely no risk in signing both Blumel and Steeves with the hope that one, if not both of them carve out a bigger role in the NHL with the Bruins and force another more established player out of the rotation. If the Bruins are forced to sign any of these three players to a big contract extension next offseason, it will have been a worthwhile venture.
Last season, The 25-year-old Blumel dominated the AHL with 39 goals and 72 points in 67 games with the Texas Stars. The prior season, he posted 31 goals and 62 points in 72 games. Like Steeves and Merkulov, though, Blumel’s barely had a chance to even get his toes wet at the NHL level, playing just 13 games total, including six in 2022-23 and seven this past season. He recorded one goal in each of those seasons while averaging just 9:01 of ice time. That could change this season with Blumel signing a one-year contract worth $875,000 with the Bruins.
Fierce Competition in Bruins’ Crowded Forward Group
Blumel and Steeves both seem primed to compete for a job out of training camp but will have a fairly tall task of uprooting some existing players on the team. It seems fair to assume that the team will start the season with a top-six that features Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak on the top line with Pavel Zacha, Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson on the second line. If this is the case, the third line becomes the best chance for players like Steeves, Blumel, Merkulov, as well as Fabian Lysell, Matt Poitras, Fraser Minten and newly-signed veteran Tanner Jeannot to earn ice time. The fourth line also features heavy competition with players like John Beecher, Sean Kuraly, Mark Kastelic and Michael Eyssimont, among others, in the mix for a job.
Related: Bruins’ Best and Worst Case Scenarios for the 2025-26 Season
To say the competition is fierce would be putting it lightly. Though some of the younger players may offer more upside for the Bruins, the team hasn’t seemed keen on waiting out some of the growing pains with prospects in recent years. This could change under new head coach Marco Sturm, but the team still seems set on competing this season and that could put a damper on the development of some of their youth.
Though Mittelstadt and Arvidsson are tentatively penciled in as second-line players for the Bruins this season, it doesn’t necessarily mean that one or both of these forwards won’t actually see time on the third line. The Bruins have done this in the past with Charlie Coyle when he was first acquired by the team, as well as Loui Eriksson before him. Both eventually earned bigger roles with the club, but the team has shown that a bigger salary commitment doesn’t necessarily mean a higher role in the lineup.
If Sweeney is true to his word, then some of the young players mentioned above could still earn a bigger role with the Bruins this season, but whether Sturm’s arrival signals a shift in development philosophy remains to be seen.
