With the holiday season upon us, it’s time to take a look at what should be on the Boston Bruins’ wish list for 2026. While it can hard to narrow it down to just a few items, I think there are three pretty big items the franchise will want heading into the new year.
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The Bruins are currently 19 – 14 – 0 and sitting in fourth place in a tight Atlantic Division. They are performing much better than many expected coming into the 2025-26 season, but there are still areas that they could use some assistance.
Health
The Bruins have had what can only be described as an epic run of injuries the last two months. From their opening night roster alone, David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt, Hampus Lindholm, Viktor Arvidsson, and Henri Jokiharju have all missed multiple games due to injury.
Just when someone gets healthy, someone else goes out with an injury. When Mittelstadt returned, Pastrnak went out. Pastrnak and McAvoy returned to play on their current road trip, and Arvidsson and defensive call up Jonathan Aspirot left the game against the Winnipeg Jets with injuries.
The top of the Bruins’ wish list cannot be anything but healthiness at this point as they try to shake whatever curse seems to have befallen the roster. While they have managed to weather the storm well so far, the team can only take so many hits. So as the calendar flips to 2026, hopefully the team can get healthy and stay healthy.
4+ 20-Goal Scorers
Last season, the Bruins had three players finish with over 20-goals on the season, including Brad Marchand in his tenure with the team prior to his trade to the Florida Panthers. In 2025-26, the roster is in a much better spot with more contributions outside of just the top line. While Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie are still doing the most in terms of generating points, several guys are on pace for solid seasons and it would be great to see at least four get over the 20-goal mark. It may be a bit of a stretch for four guys to reach it, but this is a wishlist for a reason.
Geekie has already surpassed it, and is currently sitting on 22 goals in 33 games, second overall across the entire NHL. Pastrnak is currently at 13 in 28 games, but I don’t think anyone has any concerns about him surpassing the 20-goal mark, barring any further, detrimental injuries. So who else is on pace to potentially surpass the mark in 2025-26?
Pavel Zacha is currently sitting at eight goals in 32 games, and his current rate would put him right at 20 goals for 81 games this season (he has missed one so far due to injury). He has passed the 20-goal mark twice in his career so far, both with the Bruins in 2022-23 and 2023-24, when he had 21 goals. It has been quite a good season for him so far, and while it is close right now, there is plenty of reason to believe he’ll hit the mark, and maybe even set a new, personal record for goals in a single season.
The next highest point scorer at the moment is Elias Lindholm who has five goals and 20 points in 23 games. It has been a very good season for him on the top line with Geekie and Pastrnak, and hopefully more goals will come. He last reached the mark in 2022-23 while with the Calgary Flames. He finished that season with 22 goals in 80 games. If he can stay healthy and continue to play as well as he has, he could easily go on a scoring run in the coming months.
At seven goals each on the season, Arvidsson and Mittelstadt could also be in the mix, depending on how long Arvidsson is out with his current injury. Arvidsson has hit the 20-goal mark in five out of his ten previous NHL seasons. Mittelstadt has only hit 18, and would set a new career high if he reached 20 in 2025-26. He’s currently on pace for 22, so there’s certainly a chance for him.
2026 Playoff Appearance
The Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16 last season. That was eight straight seasons of playoff appearances. Not only that, it wasn’t particularly close as they finished in last place in the Atlantic Division.
It was certainly a necessary wake up call for the Bruins front office and GM Don Sweeney that major changes needed to be made, and changes were certainly made. The team traded away major pieces like Marchand, Charlie Coyle, and Brandon Carlo, as well as other supporting guys like Justin Brazeau and Trent Frederic. They brought in new guys in Mittelstadt, Arvidsson, Jokiharju, Fraser Minten, and Marat Khusnutdinov. They signed Tanner Jeannot, Alex Steeves, Mikey Eyssimont, and Sean Kuraly. Guys that remained on the roster were able to get healthy, like H. Lindholm, who missed all but 17 games last season due to a fractured kneecap.
It was a tough process, but a necessary one, and while there is still areas in need of improvement, the 2025-25 Bruins are actually pretty decent and should make a real push for a playoff spot. It’s not necessarily a crazy wish for this team to return to the postseason in 2026.
Will they be a legitimate contender? Probably not, and certainly not enough to be all in at the trade deadline in a few months, but hey, crazier things have happened in the playoffs. Making it in is only half the battle, once the postseason begins, anything can happen and there is certainly a precedent of lower seeds doing better than anticipated in recent seasons.
Calendar Flipping to 2026
There is a lot to look forward to in the new year. A number of Bruins players are set to represent their countries in the 2026 Olympic Games, including Pastrnak, McAvoy, and Geekie. Boston will also travel down to Florida to face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Stadium Series game at Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 1.
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Outside of the bigger, marquee events, this is a competitive team that will have a real fight to the finish to hopefully make it to the playoffs. This will not be the same team that limped to the finish line of the 2024-25 season earlier this year.
Before the New Year arrives, the Bruins have some tough matchups ahead as they face the Utah Mammoth (Dec. 16), the Edmonton Oilers (Dec. 18 and Dec. 31), and the Ottawa Senators (Dec. 21), who have proven to be a tricky opponent for this team so far in 2025-26. Make sure to stay tuned to The Hockey Writers to stay up to date throughout the remainder of the season.
