James van Riemsdyk is still sitting on the market, and that feels a little odd for a player who just kept proving he can help a team.
The former Bruins winger was one of Boston’s sneaky-important pickups in the summer of 2023. Don Sweeney brought in the veteran after van Riemsdyk had spent his first 14 seasons bouncing between the Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs, and he quickly settled into a useful role for Jim Montgomery’s club.
Boston had just come off a 2022-23 regular season that set the NHL record for wins and points in an 82-game season, only to watch it end in a brutal first-round loss to the Florida Panthers after blowing a 3-1 series lead. Van Riemsdyk still carved out a real role in that follow-up season, appearing in 71 regular-season games and putting up 11 goals and 27 assists with a plus-7 rating while averaging 13:30 per night.
He worked the middle six, helped on the power play, and delivered four goals and seven points with the man advantage. His one-year, $3 million deal looked like money well spent.
In the playoffs, he added one goal and five points in 11 games.
Since leaving Boston, van Riemsdyk has taken one-year stops with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings, but he’s still unsigned with camps less than a month away.
That’s enough to land him on Matt Larkin’s list of the top remaining free agents at Daily Faceoff, where he was grouped with Patrik Laine, Logan Stanley, Vladimir Tarasenko, Michael Bunting, Eeli Tolvanen, Cam Talbot, John Klingberg, Nick Blankenburg, Connor Ingram, Jonathan Drouin, Adam Henrique, Carson Soucy, James Reimer and David Perron.
It’s a pretty strong veteran field, but van Riemsdyk standing out there is still a bit of a surprise after what he’s done the past two seasons. He had 16 goals and 20 assists for Columbus in 2024-25, then scored 15 goals last season for Detroit, a team that faded late and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He looks like the kind of player somebody will eventually take a swing on, whether that’s a one-year contract or a PTO for training camp. Even now, van Riemsdyk still gives a team something: veteran presence, a steady hand, and enough scoring touch to matter in the bottom nine.
In Other News...
Bruins May Need To Cut Ties With A Familiar Center
The Bruins are again in the kind of roster conversation that tends to follow a team with more interesting young forwards than clean openings. James Hagens and Matthew Poitras are both pushing toward bigger roles, and Bostons current center picture has enough congestion that every available spot seems to come with a catch. The trick, as always, is finding a way to create room without upsetting the balance of the lineup.
One familiar option sits outside the organizations recent spotlight, even if he remains well known to Boston fans. Sean Kuraly has carved out a useful depth role since leaving the Bruins, and a reunion would come with the sort of practical appeal teams like when they are trying to manage a crowded middle six. The question is whether Boston can make the math work while keeping enough flexibility for the prospects it wants to see grow into the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Head Into Camp With One Roster Doubt Still Unsettled
As training camp draws closer, the Bruins still have a familiar-looking question hanging over the middle of their lineup. Elias Lindholm, Pavel Zacha, Fraser Minten and Sean Kuraly form the current top four down the middle, but the group still does not give Boston an obvious No. 1 center, and that uncertainty is part of what makes the coming weeks so important for the rosters shape.
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 🡒]