The Bruins have their next leader, and the choice lands on the player who has been the face of the offense for more than a decade. Boston announced that David Pastrnak is now the 28th captain in franchise history, stepping into one of the most decorated roles in team lore.
That history is heavy. Pastrnak joins a line of Bruins captains that includes 16 Hockey Hall of Famers and nine players whose numbers have already been retired by the organization. Patrice Bergeron is set to become the 10th former Bruins captain to receive that honor when his No. 37 goes up in December.
Pastrnak’s case for the job is built on production that has piled up year after year in black and gold. He is entering his 13th NHL season and has played 833 games, all with Boston, with 420 goals and 513 assists for 933 points and a plus-145 rating. That places him among the Bruins’ all-time leaders in several major categories: fifth in goals, ninth in assists, sixth in points and tied for seventh in points per game at 1.12.
The milestones keep stacking up. The 30-year-old is tied for first in franchise history with eight 30-goal seasons, tied for second with five 40-goal seasons, and is one of only two Bruins ever to score 60 goals in a season, doing it in 2022-23.
He also ranks second in franchise history with 19 hat tricks, fourth in power-play goals with 132 and fourth in multipoint games with 266. Pastrnak is one of three skaters in team history to put together at least four straight 100-point seasons.
His 2025-26 campaign was another reminder of just how central he is to Boston’s attack. In 77 games, Pastrnak scored 29 goals and posted a career-high 71 assists for 100 points, marking his fourth consecutive 100-point season.
He finished sixth in the NHL in assists and tied for seventh in points, while leading Bruins skaters in assists, points, points per game at 1.30, even-strength points with 67, power-play points with 33 and shots with 261. He also logged a career-high 20:39 per game, tops among Boston forwards.
That season included several personal markers, too. Pastrnak played his 800th NHL game, scored his 400th NHL goal and recorded his 500th NHL assist. On Jan. 10, 2026, he turned in a career-best six-point night that matched a franchise record for most assists in a game.
The peak of his individual scoring profile still came in 2022-23, when he joined Phil Esposito as the only Bruins to score 60 goals in a season, finishing with 61. That year he helped Boston to a 135-point season and franchise records for wins with 65 and points. Pastrnak was a Hart Trophy finalist that season, led the league with 13 game-winning goals and set a career high with 113 points.
His playoff résumé is just as substantial. Pastrnak played in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final and has appeared in 96 career postseason games, collecting 42 goals and 52 assists for 94 points, along with seven game-winning goals.
He has also been a fixture on the league’s biggest stages. Pastrnak has appeared in four NHL All-Star Games - 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024 - and was named All-Star Game MVP in 2020.
He won the Maurice Richard Trophy in 2019-20 after scoring 48 goals in a 70-game shortened season. He earned NHL First All-Star Team honors in 2020 and 2023, then Second All-Star Team recognition in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Internationally, the Havirov, Czechia native has represented Czechia in six IIHF World Championships, in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2024 and 2025. He helped Czechia win gold in 2024, scoring the game-winning goal, and bronze in 2022, when he led the tournament with seven goals. At the 2025 event, he led all players with 15 points in eight games and was named to the World Championship All-Star Team as Best Forward.
Pastrnak has also taken home the Golden Hockey Stick as the top Czech hockey player eight times, including five straight from 2017 through 2021. At the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, he served as an alternate captain for Team Czechia and finished with five points in five games.
Boston originally selected Pastrnak in the first round, 25th overall, of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
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DiPietro took advantage of it in camp and preseason, where he put together the kind of showing that made the backup picture more interesting than it has been in a while. For a Bruins team looking to sort out the goal crease after last springs disappointment, having a second goaltender who earned the job on merit gives the season a little more stability, even if the long-term questions around the position are still very much part of the conversation. [Read more 🡒]