With the Bruins still 37 days away from opening the regular season, the chatter around Boston has settled down a bit after a busy stretch. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been plenty to chew on. Zdeno Chara’s farewell in Slovakia drew the kind of scene you’d expect for a legend, David Pastrnak made a run at convincing Patrice Bergeron to give it another year, and the NHL is set to unveil its top 20 centers today.
Chara’s final shift came on Friday in Trenčín, Slovakia, where hockey and soccer figures gathered to send him off. After the game, he matched his 108.8 mph hardest shot record, skated to center ice, and spoke about the brotherhood of the Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup team. That same Bruins connection also surfaced with Pastrnak’s unsuccessful pitch to Bergeron, a development that could matter for Boston’s issues down the middle.
The league’s center rankings arrive today, and the Bruins were shut out of the list last season. That makes it unlikely any Boston names appear this time around either. The NHL will reveal the top 20 during the 7:00 PM ET broadcast on NHL Network, and it’s also looking back at the centers who made the cut a year ago and what questions surround them now.
Around the rest of the league, expansion talk is heating up again. Bill Daly said the NHL is “moving forward in Texas” during the league’s European Media Tour, and if the board of governors signs off, an announcement on Houston or Austin could come by the end of the calendar year.
The target would be a team beginning play in the 2029-30 season. The league is also keeping the door open to 34 teams, with Daly noting “ongoing discussions both with people in the Phoenix marketplace, but also Atlanta.”
Detroit’s GM search is starting to take shape as well. Interviews have already happened, and Max Bultman of The Athletic mentioned several executives who could be in the mix. One name to watch is Jeff Greenberg, the current Detroit Tigers GM, while a few assistant general managers around the NHL are also being considered.
In Detroit, Moritz Seider said he was completely blindsided by Dylan Larkin’s trade request. Speaking to a German outlet, Seider said there was nothing he could do about it and that his attention is on the season ahead. He also addressed the Red Wings’ late-season fade.
Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle weighed in on the Brady Tkachuk situation, saying Tkachuk’s decision is behind him now and that the Senators can still be a playoff team. During the European Media Tour, Stutzle said he did not know Tkachuk had requested a trade, adding that “you don’t really talk to your teammates about that.”
Colorado forward Martin Necas also spoke back home in the Czech Republic about his time with the Avalanche and skating alongside Nathan MacKinnon. Jared Bednar usually kept them together, but Necas discussed the possibility of separating them, which gives Bednar another option to consider.
Elsewhere, Will James looked at EA’s NHL 27 ratings for the Flyers and found that Philadelphia did not have a 90 overall player, though 10 Flyers landed inside the top 300. And in a strange bit of news from the PWHL, the Montreal Victoire’s replica of the Walter Cup is missing after it failed to arrive at its latest stop in Lethbridge, Alberta. The league said the trophy “did not arrive as expected at its latest stop.”
In Other News...
Pastrnak Just Tapped Into What Bruins Fans Still Want From Bergeron
The gathering in Slovakia had the feel of a Bruins reunion wrapped around a tribute to Zdeno Chara, with Patrice Bergeron back alongside David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand for an exhibition game that offered plenty of nostalgia. Bergeron, who retired in July 2023, looked every bit like the player Boston fans spent so many years trusting, and his presence alone was enough to stir the kind of memories that linger long after a career ends.
Pastrnak even leaned into what plenty of Bruins supporters have probably wondered at one point or another, but Bergeron was not biting on any comeback chatter. The moment was light and playful, not a real reopening of the door, and it only reinforced how much Bergeron still means to this franchise as his Hall of Fame induction awaits in November 2026. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Future Looks Thinner Than Fans Want To Admit
The long view around the Bruins is starting to look a lot less comforting than the present-day push in Boston might suggest. Corey Pronman of The Athletic took a swing at projecting where every NHL team could land in the 2030-31 standings, and his read on the Bruins was not flattering. The piece examined which current players and prospects might still be around by then, while also circling the bigger question of whether the organizations management and ownership structure can keep the team on a stable path.
Pronmans bottom line was that Boston does not currently project like a team with a deep safety net, thanks in part to an average-at-best roster and farm system. For a franchise that has spent so long trying to stay competitive year after year, that kind of future-facing skepticism is hard to ignore. It also leaves the Bruins facing a familiar modern problem: how to keep winning now without making the pipeline behind the NHL roster look thinner than it already does. [Read more 🡒]
Mason Lohrei Enters Bruins Camp With Real Pressure On His Spot
Mason Lohrei heads into Bruins training camp with the kind of uncertainty that can sharpen a player or unsettle him, and in his case it sounds like it has done a little of both. After a postseason that ended with him on the bench down the stretch, Lohrei is back to focusing on the 2026-27 runway, where he will be fighting for a spot against a deeper group of NHL-caliber defensemen while the Bruins sort out how their blue line is going to look.
There is also the possibility that the picture changes before camp even gets moving. Trade talk around Lohrei has not gone away, and general manager Don Sweeney still has time to adjust the defense corps before the season opener, which means Lohrei is not only competing with the players in the room but with whatever roster decisions come next. For a young defenseman trying to turn frustration into momentum, that is as real a camp pressure point as it gets. [Read more 🡒]