The Bruins are heading toward the 2026-27 season with a few big questions already hanging over camp, and preseason is where those answers have to start showing up. Boston made the playoffs last year and enters this season with the chance to push itself into the top tier, but the road there will be shaped by a shortened ramp-up, a crowded roster and no captain wearing the “C.”
One of the biggest names to watch is James Hagens. Boston has been searching for a true center since Patrice Bergeron retired, and Hagens arrives with plenty of buzz after the Bruins took him No. 7 overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.
He chose to stay at Boston College for one more year, then put up 23 points in 34 games as a sophomore. He also got a look with the Bruins during the 2025-26 season, including playoff action.
His performance at the Bruins’ Prospects Showcase only added to the noise. Hagens scored four goals against the Sabres and finished with six total.
That doesn’t lock him into the roster, but it certainly makes him harder to ignore. Still, the path is not wide open.
Fraser Minten is already set, while Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm are in the mix too. Coach Marco Sturm has already made it clear that Hagens’ college numbers alone won’t hand him a spot.
The talent is there; now he has to show it in a preseason that won’t offer many chances.
The schedule itself is also part of the story. The NHL is moving from 82 regular-season games to 84 because of CBA changes between the League and the NHL Players’ Association, and that shift is going to squeeze everything around the season.
Training camps will be more condensed, practice time will be tighter, and teams will have less room to sort through their options. For Boston, that means fewer opportunities to decide how to ease veterans in while still getting a real look at younger players.
That puts even more pressure on the line combinations, especially around David Pastrnak. Last season, he scored 29 goals, down from the 40-plus goal seasons he had been producing, but he also posted a career-high 71 assists and reached 100 points for the fourth straight year.
The Bruins spent stretches mixing and matching around him, and this fall they’ll be looking for more stability. Offseason trade pickup JJ Peterka brings speed and skill and could help lighten Pastrnak’s load offensively.
Pavel Zacha and Fraser Minten are also in the conversation, which makes preseason reps that much more important.
Then there’s the captaincy, or the lack of one. The Bruins have gone without a captain recently, and the team’s leadership structure remains one of the questions entering camp.
David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy are among the players who could end up with the job. Boston could also go with a captain by committee, or simply leave the role vacant again.
That approach worked last season when the Bruins got back to the playoffs after missing out the year before.
With four preseason games on the slate, Sturm will be watching closely for anyone who separates from the pack before the regular season opener on September 29 against the Rangers. Boston’s preseason schedule runs Sept. 29 vs.
Rangers, Oct. 2 at Jets, Oct. 3 at Wild and Oct. 5 vs. Senators.
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