The Boston Bruins traded for forward Casey Mittelstadt with prospect Will Zellers and a conditional 2025 second-round pick attached at the end of the 2024-25 season.
The team sent Charlie Coyle and a 2026 fifth-round pick in return for the budding forward, who has found a home with the Bruins this season.
Coyle would be a short-term option for an Avalanche team that aimed for a renewed Stanley Cup run. He’d play seven games and record one point under head coach Jared Bednar. Mittelstadt’s fate in Boston has been one of growth, learning a new system, and gelling with his teammates.
He has yet to replicate his career-high in points, which he recorded with the Buffalo Sabres (59 in 2022-23), in Boston. Yet he has become a key role player in the Bruins’ lineup.
Recording 42 points (15 goals and 27 assists) in 68 games with the Bruins under Marco Sturm’s leadership, he’s been utilized on the wing, alongside center Pavel Zacha and forward Viktor Arvidsson as one of the Bruins’ best lines this season.
The dynamic trio has dominated their opponents with a surprising 49.76 Corsi-for percentage (CF%), playing 557:49 total time on ice together per Natural Stat Trick. They’ve been on the ice together for 40 goals-for and 20 goals-against.
While the second line isn’t perfect, Sturm may have found lightning in a bottle with these three players. They have chemistry and solid production.
There was a discussion to move on from him this past August, but this season, Mittelstadt has proven that he’s a key piece in the middle six.
The Cost to Extend Casey Mittelstadt
Which brings us to Mittelstadt’s cost; his $5.75 million average annual value contract expires in 2026-27, the Bruins should consider extending him.
Depending on how long the Bruins want to keep Mittelstadt in the Spoked-B, general manager Don Sweeney will need to assess how much longer he’ll be a part of the retool, which has put the Bruins back into the playoff discussion.
His last contract, signed with the Avalanche, yielded a fair, three-year, $5.75 million AAV deal; a total value of $17.25 million.
Using the website Hockey Comparables as a reference, we can glean an idea of what an extension could look like for the former 57-point forward. Using a five-year deal as a baseline, Mittelstadt could earn $6.65 million AAV.
The comps above all had very similar career experience, and each also had stronger signing year production than career production, similar to Mittelstadt. So it would just be a matter of how high Mittelstadt could go past $6M on a five-year deal, with the likely cap around the $6.65M cap hit projected from the Andrew Copp signing.
While we don’t intend to minimize Mittelstadt’s contributions to the Bruins this season, scoring 15 goals and 42 points, he’s justified himself as a great middle-six contributor at 27 years old, alongside Zacha and Arvidsson.
If the Bruins were to extend him beyond the 2031-32 season, a $6.65 million contract seems adequate given his production this season and his ability to create plays, adding 27 assists to his bucket in 2025-26.
“The University of Minnesota recruit has elite puck skills, NHL quickness, and has excelled at every level. Mittelstadt (6-1, 201) was MVP of the USA Hockey All-American Top Prospects Game in September, had 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 16 games with Green Bay of the United States Hockey League early in the season, and now is the leading scorer for his high school team.”- NHL.com, Mike G. Morreale
The eighth-overall pick in 2017 may not have turned out to be what they wanted him to be when the Sabres drafted him. However, the Bruins have a legitimate producer in Mittelstadt who has found a home in Boston as long as Sweeney decides to keep him around.
