Going into the 2024-25 season, the Boston Bruins have plenty of questions they need answered. Some are just general questions, but some are more urgent than others.
In the offseason, the Bruins let winger Jake DeBrusk and others walk in free agency and sign with other teams, a good majority of them with the Vancouver Canucks. Boston in turn took two core pieces from the Canucks by signing center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov.
Related: 3 Bruins Prospects Who Could Make Their NHL Debuts This Season
Before the free agency period began, however, one of the biggest trades of the NHL offseason came when Boston traded Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators. While there are many questions that need to be answered, here are the three biggest ones that should be answered throughout training camp and the preseason.
Question #1 – Who Will Be the Second-Line Center?
Going into the season, Lindholm is the bona fide number-one center the Bruins have been searching for since Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired. He is likely to be surrounded in his forward group by the likes of Brad Marchand at left wing (provided he is healthy) and David Pastrnak at right wing.
The big question then becomes, who is the second-line center? While line numbers didn’t seem to matter to head coach Jim Montgomery, and his tendency was to err on the side of the hot line to start the next game, it may be different going into 2024-25 with a bona fide number-one line.
The second-line center contenders are most likely Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, and (if he makes the NHL roster) Matthew Poitras. Given his durability and ability to score goals, the job will most likely go to Coyle. Coyle, a grizzled veteran of 14 NHL seasons, has played all 82 regular season games in each of his last three seasons. He also did so three other times which came during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild.
In Coyle’s previous two seasons before the 2023-24 campaign, he scored 16 goals while adding 28 and 29 assists on top of that, respectively. Coyle, however, turned it up a notch in the 2023-24 season, scoring a career-high 25 goals and notching his second-highest assist total with 35. To add to his resume, Coyle also had the third-best faceoff percentage on the team with a 51.6 winning percentage.
Question #2 – Will Zacha Be Best Suited as a Center or Winger?
In his career, Zacha has mostly played center, and was very solid in the circle, leading Boston with a 54.8 percentage at the dot. Now, while he played in fewer games than Coyle, he won a higher percentage of faceoffs.
Since signing with the Bruins, Zacha has set (and matched the following season) a career-high in goals with 21. Much like Coyle, however, he set career-highs in assists in the last two seasons with 36 and 38. Most importantly for this conversation, however, Zacha posted a plus-38 plus/minus over the two seasons he has played in Boston with career highs in both seasons individually.
While Zacha does have the potential to win large numbers of faceoffs, his assist totals and ability to find open players are skills that translate more to playing on the wing than at center. While he may not stay in either role consistently and could switch between the two throughout the season, it’s clear he will be a fixture in Boston’s offense.
Question #3 – What Happens if the Bruins Strike a Deal With Swayman?
If the season began this week, the Bruins’ two goaltenders would most likely be Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi. The thing is, however, the season doesn’t start this week. Preseason hockey starts on Sunday, but the actual season starts on Oct. 8, just over two weeks away.
This gives Boston some time to strike a deal with netminder Jeremy Swayman, who is seemingly at odds with general manager Don Sweeney in terms of getting a new deal done. Swayman wants to stay with the Bruins, but for a price that Sweeney either doesn’t want to meet, or doesn’t have the means to compete with right now.
Playing devil’s advocate though, let’s put together a potential scenario. Korpisalo is currently being groomed to be Boston’s starting goalie for Boston. He is also training to have the endurance to play most of the games, as Bussi has never played a game in the NHL. Bussi is also training to play in the NHL. What happens, however, if come Oct. 8 the Bruins and Swayman come to terms on a deal?
Swayman has been sighted at Boston’s captain’s practice, and is clearly ready to play as soon as he signs on the dotted line.
Jeremy Swayman is here at captains practice. pic.twitter.com/KCEynnJWTJ
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) September 3, 2024
If Swayman were to sign right at the end of camp, where do the Bruins slot him in? Given that he has been consistent with his conditioning, Boston has a sticky situation it has put itself in.
The Bruins then have two choices: the first choice is that they send him to Providence for a game or two to get some game action. While this has reward, it also risks him being claimed by another team off waivers, as Swayman is no longer waiver exempt. Then there is option two where they throw him in there to start the season, send Bussi down to the P-Bruins, and call it a day. After all, Bussi is on a two-way deal, and Swayman is not.
Given how little Swayman played in the preseason in the 2023-24 season, chances are they would just stick him into game action, and begin the season with a platoon between him and Korpisalo to get him a rhythm before giving him multiple games in a row.
What’s Next for the Bruins?
The next step for the Bruins is to actually have camp open up, which happens today (Sept. 18).
The Bruins will likely look to shore up their issues, especially in the goaltending department, as soon as possible. Some are smaller issues that can be resolved by watching the players play in the preseason.
Puck drop for the first preseason game is on Sunday, Sept. 22 vs. the New York Rangers at 5 p.m.
