The Bruins have another prospect headed to Boston, but not right away.
Cole Chandler, Boston’s fifth-round pick in the 2025 draft, is committed to Northeastern for the 2027-28 season, giving the Bruins five college-bound players from their seven selections in that draft. Four of those players will end up in Massachusetts, and Chandler is the only one staying inside city limits.
For the 19-year-old, the fit with Northeastern was obvious from the start. The Boston setting only makes it better, especially with the Beanpot and games at TD Garden in the picture.
“I was talking to one of the coaches there, and super welcoming, super, like, everything they do […] it fits my game,” Chandler said after development camp Thursday. “The way they were talking about developing prospects, and obviously, it’s in Boston, so you can’t really beat it playing in TD [Garden] with the Beanpot and everything. It’s pretty cool.”
The connection started taking shape during development camp in 2025, just a week after Chandler was drafted. Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe, a Billerica native, has checked in at past development camps, and Mark Divver reported he was at Warrior this past week as well.
Chandler also got an early look at what his next stop would look like. He visited during last year’s development camp, saw the campus, and got a feel for where he’ll spend the next four years.
“I visited [during] last year’s dev camp, got to see the campus, see where I’m going to spend the next four years of my life,” Chandler said. “And yeah, it felt like home already, so I think it was just a major fit.”
Before he gets to Boston, though, Chandler has one more season in the QMJHL, and that season will be a lot closer to home than the last one.
He put up 52 points, scoring 20 goals and adding 32 assists, in 2025-26 with the Shawinigan Cataractes, tying for fourth on the team. Then the Cape Breton Eagles came calling, and Chandler and another forward were sent there in a deal that brought back a handful of draft picks. For the Bedford, Nova Scotia, native, that means a move to a place about four hours from home, compared with nearly 11 hours from Shawinigan, Quebec.
That move should give Chandler a different kind of push, too. He said the coaching staff in Cape Breton will be demanding, and that’s exactly what he wants.
“The coaching staff over there is unbelievable. They’re just going to be hard on me, and you know, bring my game to the next level,” Chandler said about landing in Cape Breton.
“We talked at the draft. I haven’t gone over there yet, but I think with the group we have doing the trades, you can kind of look on paper, our roster is unbelievable.
So I hope we bring our game together and gel.”
He also sees value in the longer QMJHL season. The league plays 64 games, while college schedules are roughly half that length, and Chandler believes that grind will help him when he eventually reaches Northeastern.
“I think just being on a team that’s ready to make a push for it, being late in those playoff games are going to help me have experience coming into college,” Chandler added. “I think that’s a huge part of the game.
It’s a 32-game season here and 60-something for us, so, you know, it’s a huge difference in the game. I think just getting in every night, you have to be there and prepare.”
The Bruins are not rushing him, and that’s by design. Adam McQuaid, Boston’s director of player development, said Chandler still needs work on the details, even though the tools are already there.
“The important thing for him is going to be to continue to work on his skating, work on his first few steps. For all young players, just the consistency for him,” McQuaid said Thursday.
“He’s getting a fresh start at Cape Breton. He should have a really good team.
So I think mostly just seeing the consistence, compete, competitive nature of his game.”
Chandler has already shown the hands and shot that made him stand out at both development camps. Now the next year in Cape Breton will be about sharpening everything around that skill set before he heads to Boston.
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