There are 35 days left before the Boston Bruins open the 2026-27 season against the New York Rangers, and the calendar is starting to feel like hockey again. Training camp is even closer, sitting 22 days away, which means the conversation around the Bruins is shifting from summer noise to actual roster decisions. That’s where the real intrigue lives now: camp battles, young players, and whether any of them can seize the kind of opening Cam Neely said he hopes they are “licking their chops” for.
That was the backdrop for a fresh batch of Bruins predictions, with the focus landing on five big topics: roster competition, James Hagens, Mason Lohrei, the captaincy, and what the season could look like from there. It’s the kind of list that tells you where the pressure points are before camp even begins.
And if you needed another sign that the season is creeping closer, the Zambonis are already back at the Garden, according to Mike OBrien.
Around the league, the prediction machine is spinning just as hard. In Philadelphia, Will James laid out his own season outlook for the Flyers, touching on roster battles, Matvei Michkov, Jamie Drysdale, and where the team might stand when the trade deadline and playoff race roll around in March and April.
Power rankings also hit yesterday, and Sheng Peng of SJHN rolled out a full 1-to-32 list with input from three NHL scouts. The Bruins came in at 13, with the Canucks at the bottom and the Hurricanes on the opposite end of the board. The Atlantic Division picture is part of the story there, too, with more than a few teams sitting ahead of Boston.
Corey Pronman of The Athletic added another layer with a 2025 NHL re-draft. James Hagens slid from No. 7 to No.
- Will Moore moved from 51 to 53.
Vashek Blanar jumped from 100 to 55. Cooper Simpson went from 79 to 72 in the class ranking.
There was also a notable retirement moment tied to Anze Kopitar. After appearing at Zee’s Final Shift on Friday, Kopitar said it’s definitely the end of his NHL career.
He had already announced his retirement in the fall, then closed out a 20-year run with 37 points, including 12 goals and 25 assists, in 67 games. The Kings will honor him before their game against Montreal on Feb. 24 with a statue and a retirement of No.
In New Jersey, Martin Brodeur’s wins record came back into focus. He still owns the NHL mark with 691, which puts him 116 ahead of Marc-Andre Fleury and well clear of Sergei Bobrovsky’s 456 and Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 370. Daniel Amoia examined how Vasilevskiy stacks up in the modern era and why Brodeur’s number may be out of reach for a goalie now.
Detroit Hockey Now turned to breakout candidates, with Bob Duff and DHN pointing to three Red Wings who could be ready to pop this season: a first-round pick who got a 14-game look last year, a center trying to shake off a sophomore slump, and a younger defenseman with offensive upside.
Chicago Hockey Now dug into Fraser Minten’s low placement on The Athletic’s top U23 players drafted outside the first round, while also noting that Nick Lardis was left off the 156-player list. Lardis played 41 games for the Blackhawks last season and finished with 5-10-15, and he had been ranked as the 16th-best prospect in the Blackhawks pipeline.
On the international front, Sportsnet examined how the recent NHL drafts have tilted the balance between the United States and Canada. Sonny Sachdeva wrote that Team USA’s roster has been shaped largely by players drafted from 2015-20, while a separate look at a U25 Canadian team showed that Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar would be in the picture for the next tournament, even though they don’t qualify for that age group.
The season is still a little ways off, but the runway is getting shorter. The Bruins’ questions are no longer abstract, and around the league, everyone else is starting to ask the same thing: who’s ready when the games finally count?
In Other News...
Bruins Fans Finally Have A Real Debate About The Teams Future
The Bruins have spent the past year living in a strange middle ground: good enough to bank 100 points and reach the playoffs, but not quite good enough to make anyone comfortable about what comes next. Even with limited roster upgrades last season, the organization still found a way to stay competitive, and now the conversation has started to shift from what this group is right now to what it might look like down the road.
A better pipeline is part of why that debate feels more real in Boston than it has in a while. The prospect system has taken a noticeable step forward in recent rankings, and the names driving that rise are the kind of young players fans can actually build hope around. James Hagens, Dean Letourneau and Will Zellers are giving the Bruins something they have not always had in recent seasons: a clearer sense that the future is not just theoretical, but beginning to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Face A Tough Cutter Gauthier Question They Can't Ignore
The idea of Boston getting involved in the Cutter Gauthier market has picked up because Anaheim is suddenly facing pressure on the salary-cap front, which has opened the door to speculation about whether the young forward could become available. For the Bruins, the appeal is obvious: Gauthier brings a high-end skill set and long-term upside, and any team in Bostons position has to at least monitor a situation that could shift quickly if the Ducks decide they need relief.
Still, this is the kind of scenario that lives in rumor territory until something real materializes, and the Bruins would have to weigh both the cost and the fit before going any further. There are already questions around Gauthiers contract status and his relationship with Anaheim, which makes the whole picture more delicate, and Boston would not be the only club willing to call if the Ducks seriously entertain offers. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Fans Still Have Plenty To Debate About Don Sweeneys Deadlines
Don Sweeneys trade-deadline track record has given Bruins fans plenty to sort through, and the latest look back at his biggest swings only adds to the conversation. The 2019 deadline still stands out because of the Charlie Coyle deal, a move that helped reshape the roster and fed into Bostons playoff push, while the clubs later deadlines have been judged against a much harsher mix of short-term needs and long-term results.
The 2023 and 2025 deadlines each came with their own baggage, from moves that looked sharp in the moment to decisions that have aged less cleanly once the dust settled. For a front office that has tried to thread the needle between staying in the race and reworking the lineup, the debate around Sweeneys deadlines is really a debate about how much risk a contender can afford and how quickly a verdict should be written. [Read more 🡒]