The Boston Bruins are just over 50 days away from their opening-night matchup with the Florida Panthers. The team has one key move to make before then, that being re-signing netminder Jeremy Swayman, who remains a restricted free agent. Outside of that, the roster appears to be set. With some new names on the roster, let’s take a look at who projects to lead the team in a few key statistics.
Goals: David Pastrnak
No surprise here. Barring an injury, it seems highly unlikely that anyone else on the Bruins roster will compete with David Pastrnak’s goal total. As it stands right now, No. 88 has the second-shortest odds to win the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for the player who scores the most goals in the NHL each year, trailing only Auston Matthews.
Pastrnak has eclipsed 110 points two seasons in a row, playing in every game and scoring 47 and 61 goals respectively. Last season, he had 25 more goals and 18 more assists than anyone else on the Bruins; he is the unequivocal cornerstone of their forward group and is set to have another big campaign in 2024-25.
Assists: Elias Lindholm
Elias Lindholm was the biggest name the Bruins acquired in free agency this offseason. He figures to play alongside Pastrnak on the team’s top line which bodes well for his assist total; Lindholm may be poised to have a career season. He is entering a much better situation than he has been in over the past couple of years in Calgary, and unlike in his short time in Vancouver, he will have an entire training camp and preseason to get acclimated with his new teammates. Lindholm is a playmaker and a true top-line center, something the Bruins were missing last season. He and Pastrnak should cause problems playing alongside one another.
Hits: Nikita Zadorov
Nikita Zadorov was another key acquisition in free agency this offseason. He will provide a physical presence on the blue line that should help make the Bruins a tougher team to play against than they were last season. Zadorov is a wrecking ball. He stands at 6-foot-6, weighs 221 pounds, and he plays every bit of it, averaging 2.39 hits per game in 2023-24.
Related: Meet the New Bruins: Nikita Zadorov
Zadorov’s arrival and the departure of undersized Matt Grzelcyk make the Bruins much more stout defensively. This should bode well for them, particularly late in the season and into the spring. The Florida Panthers have been the Bruins’ kryptonite two postseasons in a row. Every series has been physical, and the Bruins have come up short partially as a result of them being pushed around at times during those games. Zadorov’s arrival should help mitigate Florida’s physical advantage in those games.
Save Percentage: Jeremy Swayman
Like Pastrnak leading the team in goals, this one is somewhat of a no-brainer. Swayman showed in the 2024 postseason that he is ready to be the guy in Boston. Linus Ullmark’s departure solidifies that the net is his going forward (assuming the Bruins can work out a contract with him ahead of the season). The one concern heading into 2024-25 about the Bruins’ top goalie would be his workload. He has never started more than 44 games in an NHL season, and he will likely be expected to start a meaningfully-larger number of games than that this season. If last postseason was any indication, however, Swayman will be just fine: he started 12 games in a row against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Panthers and posted a save percentage (SV%) of .933. At his best, Swayman could contend for a Vezina Trophy, and it will be interesting to see how this season plays out with him alone at the helm.
Team Leaders
The Bruins are set to compete for an Atlantic Division title again in 2024-25. These four players will look to lead the way. Pastrnak will aim to continue to be the cornerstone of the Bruins’ offense with his new top-line center, Lindholm. Zadorov will provide a physical presence on the back end, and Swayman will hold down the crease and continue his run as one of the game’s elite goaltenders.
