The Bruins’ new goalie setup won’t get much of a grace period.
After moving Joonas Korpisalo to the New York Rangers, Boston opened the door for Michael DiPietro to step in as Jeremy Swayman’s backup, and the schedule is going to put that arrangement under the microscope right away. The NHL handed out the 2026-27 slate, and Marco Sturm’s club will face a string of early stretches that could force the Bruins to lean on DiPietro sooner rather than later.
That change in net came after Don Sweeney decided it was time to move on from Korpisalo, who had been acquired from the Ottawa Senators two years earlier as part of the return for Linus Ullmark. Korpisalo wanted a larger role, but that wasn’t going to happen in Boston, and the Bruins weren’t in position to keep him around just to block DiPietro.
Boston also had a practical reason to make the move. If DiPietro had been sent down to the Providence Bruins in the AHL, the Bruins would have risked losing him on waivers. He wouldn’t have made it through unclaimed.
So now the focus shifts to how Sturm manages the tandem, and the calendar gives him plenty of chances to find out. The Bruins open with a back-to-back on the road, Oct. 2 against the Winnipeg Jets and Oct. 3 against the Minnesota Wild.
The next week brings three games in five days, which points to DiPietro getting a start. After that comes another West Coast trip, with back-to-back games against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings in Southern California, another spot where DiPietro could get into the crease.
There are also road games mixed with home dates that give Boston three games in a week and another opening for DiPietro to play. November is a little calmer, with just one back-to-back and nine of the 11 games at TD Garden, which suggests Swayman could handle most of that workload.
DiPietro has been waiting for this chance to back up Swayman, and the Bruins were not eager to let him slip away after they let Brandon Bussi walk last summer. Twelve months later, and two teams later, Bussi is a Stanley Cup champion with the Carolina Hurricanes.
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The Bruins are still looking for the kind of internal jump that can change the feel of a season, and Poitras is the sort of player who could help answer that need if the development keeps trending the right way. His AHL track record suggests there is more to unlock, and Boston is hoping that by 2026-27 he can grow into a regular top-nine role rather than remain a player the team shuttles in and out of the lineup. For now, the question is less about whether the talent is there and more about when the Bruins finally get enough of it at the NHL level. [Read more 🡒]