The Bruins have plenty still hanging over their offseason, but at least they didn’t land on one particularly unflattering list.
With more than half the summer gone, Boston still hasn’t fully solved its roster issues for the 2026-27 season. Don Sweeney did get one big piece in place by adding top-six goal-scoring wing JJ Peterka, but the Bruins still appear to be searching for a top-six center and a right-shot defenseman. And if the answer to that right-shot need is Connor Clifton or a trade for Will Borgen from the New York Rangers, that doesn’t exactly scream finished product.
That’s part of why Boston feels like a team with more questions than answers heading toward Opening Night on Sept. 29 against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. Sweeney has an abundance of defensemen on hand, which makes the possibility of some roster movement before the season even more obvious. Whether those moves actually come, though, is another story.
Still, when Harman Dayal of The Athletic put together a list of seven NHL teams he sees getting stuck in the mushy middle, the Bruins were not among them. Dayal’s group included the Los Angeles Kings, Seattle Kraken, Winnipeg Jets, Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, and Columbus Blue Jackets.
That omission is a little surprising. Boston doesn’t look like a Stanley Cup contender right now, but it also doesn’t project as a clean postseason lock in its current form. That gray area - with a core that’s not getting any younger - is exactly what the mushy middle is supposed to describe.
What it suggests is that Dayal doesn’t see the Bruins as being in as much trouble as some around the league might assume. Even so, a playoff spot feels unlikely if the roster stays where it is, especially with several teams in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference looking stronger after their offseason additions. Florida and Washington, in particular, have already added more talent.
Could Boston still make more moves before camp and the regular season? Sure.
But every day that passes makes that look less likely. And if this is the group that opens the season, the Bruins may wind up looking a lot like the kind of team that belongs in the mushy middle after all.
In Other News...
Bruins Face Growing Pressure On Pavel Zacha And Two Young Forwards
Don Sweeney has a handful of contract decisions to sort through as the Bruins head toward the final year of several key deals, and Pavel Zacha sits near the center of that discussion. Boston is weighing whether to commit long term to the versatile center while also looking at younger forwards Marat Khusnutdinov and Fraser Minten, a pair whose development makes them part of the organizations broader planning instead of just short-term roster pieces.
The timing matters, too, because the market around young players is starting to move and the Bruins will have to decide how aggressively they want to act before the rules change later this month. A new labor agreement is set to alter how long teams can extend players, which adds another layer of urgency to Bostons talks and raises the stakes on whether the front office chooses to lock in its options now or wait and risk a shorter window to do so. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Quiet Offseason May Not Last Much Longer For Sweeney
The Bruins offseason has been quieter than some around the league, but the market is beginning to heat up in a way that could nudge Boston into action. Around the NHL, teams are locking up younger players to longer deals, and the Pittsburgh Penguins new contract for Ville Koivunen is the latest sign that organizations are trying to get ahead of rising costs before training camp chatter starts to take over.
For Don Sweeney, the clock is part of the backdrop now. Boston still has key business to handle with two forwards eligible for extensions, and there is a limited window to work through it before the summer calendar gets away from him. The Providence Bruins also added some organizational depth with forward Cross Hanas on a one-year AHL contract, while elsewhere in the league the Kings are planning a future celebration for Anze Kopitar. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Could Be Pulled Into A Costly Devils Reunion Push
The Devils reshaping under GM Sunny Mehta has already prompted early looks at how New Jersey might build for 2026-27, and one name that keeps surfacing is a familiar one for both franchises: Pavel Zacha. The idea of a reunion has some logic for New Jersey, which knows the forward well, while Boston has reasons to pay close attention because Zacha has become part of its forward mix and remains the kind of player teams do not casually move.
For the Bruins, the situation carries a built-in layer of tension. Zacha is entering the final year of his contract, which makes him a player contenders will monitor closely and makes Bostons long-term plan around him an issue to watch as the season unfolds. New Jersey may be eyeing potential trade pieces to get a deal done, but until anything actually materializes, the Bruins are left balancing what he means to their present roster against the reality that his future could become a topic well before the year is out. [Read more 🡒]