The Bruins’ camp picture for the 2026-27 season is already crowded, and not just on the blue line.
Yes, the defense logjam is grabbing plenty of attention, with Charlie McAvoy set to miss the first six games because of the suspension he received for his slash on Zach Benson of the Buffalo Sabres at the end of Game 6 of last spring’s first-round series. But the forward group has its own mess to sort out, especially in the bottom six, where a handful of players are chasing a limited number of openings.
Lukas Reichel is right in the middle of that fight, and he’s approaching it like a player who knows nothing will be handed to him.
“I want to work hard now and when camp starts, you’ve just got to try and do everything you can to take that spot,” Reichel said, per Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald. “We have so many good players here so anyone can be in the lineup.
It’s just about having a good camp, waking up, being on the right foot and having a good mindset. You have to take it day by day and not think about it too much really.”
Reichel arrived from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline in March and later signed a one-year deal worth $950,000. That contract doesn’t guarantee him anything now. He’ll enter camp as one of several players battling for a spot among Boston’s bottom-six forwards.
The competition doesn’t stop with Reichel. Veterans Mikey Eyssimont and Alex Steeves are also in the mix, both having spent plenty of time in the pressbox last season as healthy scratches. Then there are the bigger names hovering over the conversation: James Hagens and Matthew Poitras.
Poitras still isn’t under contract, so there’s a real chance he may not even be in camp when it opens. If he is, the picture gets even more crowded.
Hagens, meanwhile, brings a different kind of intrigue than the usual prospect. He got a taste of NHL action in a handful of games at the end of last season, then sat out the final three playoff games against the Sabres.
Once projected as the top overall pick in the 2025 Entry Draft, he slipped to Boston at No. 7, and that alone has plenty of Bruins fans hoping he lands on the Opening Night roster.
Sturm will have plenty to sort through in a short window next month, and Reichel’s speed gives him one more variable to weigh. Whether that makes the decision harder or easier is still to be determined, but Reichel sounds ready to push for a spot.
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The latest reminder came when the NHL Network unveiled its top 20 centers for the upcoming season without a Bruins player on the list, a notable omission for a team trying to reestablish itself among the leagues better clubs. There is also the separate matter of Matthew Poitras, who remains unsigned as camp nears, leaving Boston with one more unresolved piece in a position group that already lacks a clear answer at the top. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Need Lukas Reichel To Become The Answer At Center
Lukas Reichel arrives in Boston with a familiar kind of appeal for a team looking to solve a long-running question down the middle: enough talent to dream on, enough uncertainty to keep the price reasonable. The Bruins brought him in last March and have spent the months since viewing him as a possible middle-six center, the sort of low-cost swing that can pay off if the former first-round pick finally finds steadier production after uneven stretches with Chicago and Vancouver.
Reichels next step matters because the Bruins still need someone to seize that center role and make it look permanent, not temporary. There is at least some organizational comfort in the setup, with head coach Marco Sturm and other German players in the picture, and Boston is clearly hoping that familiarity helps bring out a more complete version of the player they think is still in there. The question now is whether this is the environment that finally turns potential into something the Bruins can actually rely on. [Read more 🡒]