Don Sweeney has spent years taking heat for the Bruins’ drafting, and for good reason in plenty of cases. Boston has stayed competitive enough that the front office often wasn’t shopping from the top of the draft board. Between picking late in the first round and dealing away picks for immediate help, the GM hasn’t exactly had a clean runway to stock the cupboard.
That’s what makes the current wave of young Bruins so awkward for his critics. The team had limited options at the 2025 trade deadline, and Sweeney still came out with James Hagens at No. 7 overall while also bringing in Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov and Will Zellers. Those moves are looking a lot better now that the kids are not just on the roster, but making real noise.
Minten and Khusnutdinov have already climbed into second-line roles on a Bruins team that opened the season 6-2-0. Hagens, meanwhile, is starting to heat up in his rookie year, punctuated by a two-point night in Boston’s 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. The best sequence came on an eye-catching give-and-go with another Sweeney draftee, Matthew Poitras, who has taken the fourth-line center job from veteran Sean Kuraly.
It’s not just the forwards driving this stretch, either. The back end is getting help from two more Sweeney picks in Frederic Brunet and Mason Lohrei, with Brunet scoring his first career goal in the comeback win over Anaheim.
That goal also carried a little draft-history footnote attached to it. It marked the first goal by a Bruins player taken in the fifth round or later and drafted by Don Sweeney to play for the team since Oskar Steen in 2021-22, and it was the first time that has happened with a defenseman.
No one is about to hand Sweeney a trophy for hidden gems in the later rounds on the basis of one goal. But Brunet’s rise adds to the growing list of young Bruins who are actually pulling weight, and that’s the part that matters right now.
Of course, the risk with a youth movement is that the highs and lows can come together. If the rookies and recent additions cool off at the same time, the Bruins could be in a rough spot. For now, though, they’ve been covering for the veterans over the last couple of games, and the idea is that the older players will return the favor if regression hits.
Sweeney still has plenty to prove before the drafting conversation truly changes. But if this group ends up being the backbone of the next Bruins contender, the loudest criticism might need to soften just a bit.
In Other News...
Bruins Just Turned A Zadorov Scratch Into A Bigger Problem
Nikita Zadorovs night on the bench against the Kings was already notable because it came after a double-minor penalty in the previous game against Anaheim, and Bruins coach Marco Sturm made it clear the decision was about discipline as much as anything else. For a team trying to keep its footing, a healthy scratch for a veteran defenseman is never just a routine lineup call, especially when it follows a lapse that drew attention in the first place.
The situation got more awkward when a social media exchange involving Zadorovs agent and a fan started feeding speculation about where things might be headed next. No formal trade talks have been reported, but the chatter added another layer to a story that began with one bad penalty and has now turned into something bigger for Boston to manage. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Roster Crunch Is Turning One Forward Into Trade Bait
Matthew Poitras being cleared to play has only tightened the squeeze on Bostons forward group, and the Bruins responded by placing Mikey Eyssimont on waivers and sending him to Providence. It is the kind of roster move that says as much about logjams as it does about performance, because Eyssimont has been productive in the AHL and still found himself on the outside looking in when the Bruins had to make room.
The problem for Boston is that there is simply no easy path back into the lineup right now, even with Eyssimont doing enough in Providence to keep his name in the conversation. When a player is producing down below but has no obvious opening upstairs, that is often where trade chatter starts to build, and the Bruins appear to be there now with a depth piece who may be more valuable as an asset than as a spare forward on the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Suddenly Have A Matt Poitras Problem They Might Welcome
Matt Poitras has gone from a low-profile one-year, two-way signing to a player the Bruins have found ways to fit into the lineup almost immediately. After getting past a lower-body injury, the young forward has suited up for six games and chipped in five points, enough to draw steady praise from coach Marco Sturm for handling his assignments and taking advantage of the openings created by injuries around him.
The bigger wrinkle for Boston is what happens when the lineup gets healthier. Sean Kuraly was scratched while Poitras kept earning looks higher up the board, and Kuraly has since been preparing to return, which only tightens the competition for ice time. For a team trying to sort out its depth on the fly, Poitras has given the Bruins a useful problem, even if it is one they may have to solve sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]