Brian Rolston’s name doesn’t come up first when people talk about Bruins history, but he owns a Boston record that sits in a category all its own.
Rolston, a first-round pick by the New Jersey Devils with the 11th overall selection in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, put together a 17-year NHL career that also included stops with the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild and New York Islanders. But his most durable Bruins imprint came in the 2001-02 season, when he set a franchise mark that still feels untouchable: nine shorthanded goals.
That number is the key. Not nine goals overall - Rolston finished that season with 27 goals and 32 assists for 59 points - but nine while Boston was killing a penalty.
That kind of production from a shorthanded situation is rare enough already. For one player to stack up nine in a single season is something else entirely.
It’s a record that looks even safer when you zoom out to where the game is now. Shorthanded goals still happen, but they’re much harder to come by than they were in earlier eras, even with a lot of teams using four forwards on the power play. The chances just aren’t there the way they used to be.
And the recent Bruins numbers only sharpen the point. In 2025-26, Boston managed just two shorthanded goals as a team across 82 games. Even with the league moving to an 84-game schedule in 2026-27, getting to nine in a season feels wildly out of reach.
Brad Marchand is the Bruins’ all-time leader in shorthanded goals, with 36 from 2009-25 before he was traded to the Florida Panthers at the 2025 trade deadline for a first-round draft pick. Even he never got close to Rolston’s single-season standard.
A few other Bruins have come close in franchise history. Jerry Toppazzini had eight in 1957-58, while Don Marcotte, Ed Westfall, Derek Sanderson and Gregg Spehhard each had seven in a season. But Rolston still stands alone at the top, and that gap is exactly why this record feels so sturdy.
Some marks are vulnerable. This one isn’t.
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