The 2025-26 season has been a rollercoaster for the Boston Bruins. After the 2024-25 season ended without a playoff berth following a dismantling of the then-current core, the team wasn’t expected to be a real player in the Eastern Conference this season. Though management made it clear the expectation was to be competitive, the roster simply didn’t reflect these aspirations.
Rather than giving some of the prospects knocking on the door of the NHL a chance to compete, the roster was filled with a bevy of veteran additions who would raise the floor of the team but also seemingly limit the ceiling. Despite this, the team has remained competitive throughout the first half of the season and may even be a legitimate threat to finish atop the Atlantic Division when all is said and done as they currently sit just one point out of first place and have the second-best goal-differential. While this may be a legitimate outcome, it shouldn’t change the team’s long-term plans come the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline in March.
Realistically, this team should not be mortgaging the long-term future to benefit the short term. When the team was a perennial Stanley Cup contender, it was feasible to borrow from the future to accommodate the present. Whenever teams take this approach, there will always be a reckoning. For the Bruins, that reckoning came last season. It would be foolish to immediately fall into a trap because of some short-term success in a season that almost certainly won’t end in a Stanley Cup victory.
With all of this in mind, the Bruins can still be buyers when the trade deadline rolls around. If the team opts to make moves that benefit both the short- and long-term, then they wouldn’t necessarily be mortgaging their future. Trading for players who factor into the team’s long-term plans, be it players with existing term or players who have mutual interest in signing long-term extensions, these should be the types of deals general manager Don Sweeney makes this season. In other words, to properly continue this retool, the team should avoid rentals that cost significant long-term assets.
Bruins Core Foundation Already in Place
Fortunately for the Bruins, most teams don’t start their retool with one of the NHL’s best players (David Pastrnak), one of the NHL’s top defenders (Charlie McAvoy), a franchise goaltender (Jeremy Swayman) and another player with 40-50 goal potential (Morgan Geekie). This doesn’t even factor in some of the better prospects in the Bruins’ system, highlighted by James Hagens and featuring some players already on the cusp of making the NHL roster.
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If the Bruins can somehow find players who fit the current timeline but also have the potential to be contributors in the short term, they should be all over these types of deals. That is, of course, assuming the cost of acquiring these players makes sense. This is typically where things get tricky.
If a player is good enough to be a long-term building block for the Bruins, they’re almost certainly the same for their current team. Players like this don’t become available every day and when they do, they typically cost a pretty penny. The Bruins have to balance the cost of acquiring these players with the long-term benefit they’d provide.
This was the team’s approach last Deadline when the majority of their moves netted NHL quality players. It wasn’t an easy time for the team, but the returns were basically all lauded outside of the Brad Marchand deal, though that one wasn’t really up for discussion if Sweeney truly was doing his former captain a favor in trading him to his preferred destination. The argument can be made that Sweeney could have found a middle ground and extended Marchand, but if there was an insurmountable gap to bridge, then it’s hard to fault Sweeney for getting any assets at all rather than losing him for nothing.
If the Bruins want to make some moves before this season’s Trade Deadline, they should already be working the phones to see who’s available. They also need to take a good look at their current roster and determine which players are expendable as they look to transform the team from a potential playoff contender to a Stanley Cup contender.
There’s a lot of time between now and the Deadline for the Bruins to see exactly where they stand and what the landscape looks like in March. Still, putting out feelers now and planning ahead only serves to benefit the team in the long run.
