The Bruins’ offseason makeover has sent a long list of familiar names packing, and plenty of them have already found new addresses for next season. Some left in-season, some were moved after the year ended, and a few simply ran out of runway in Boston before getting their next shot elsewhere.
One of the first dominoes fell in November, when Boston put Johnny Beecher on waivers and lost the 2019 first-round pick to the Calgary Flames. Beecher played 29 games in Calgary and posted six points (2-4-6), though an upper-body injury cost him 15 games in January. On July 1, he landed with the Florida Panthers on a one-year deal worth $850,000.
Jeffrey Viel also got a fresh start after Boston dealt him to Anaheim in January for a fourth-round pick. He appeared in 10 games for the Bruins after making the roster out of training camp and didn’t record a point in black and gold.
That changed once he got to Southern California, where he finished with 10 points (3-7-10) in 35 regular-season games for Anaheim and added four more points (2-2-4) in the playoffs. Viel signed a five-year, $12.5 million deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Vladislav Kolyachonok’s Bruins stop barely registered on the stat sheet, but it still left a little trivia behind. He wore No. 74 after Jake DeBrusk, dressed for just two games in Boston, then was waived and reclaimed by Dallas before finishing the year with the AHL’s Texas Stars. The Stars passed on giving the Belarusian defenseman a qualifying offer, and the New Jersey Devils picked him up on a one-year, $850,000 contract.
Victor Soderstrom is heading back across the Atlantic after a brief North American return didn’t produce an NHL breakthrough. A year after winning the SHL’s defenseman of the year award, he came back hoping for a better crack at a roster spot, but managed only eight December games with Boston before being sent to Providence before the holiday break. He has signed with EHC Biel-Bienne in Switzerland through the 2027-28 season.
Fabian Lysell’s Boston chapter ended in a trade to the Colorado Avalanche for depth forward Ivan Ivan. The 2021 first-round pick dressed for 12 NHL games with the Bruins, and after the deal, Don Sweeney said Boston could have done more for his development, while also noting Lysell took ownership of that as well. A few weeks later, Lysell signed a one-year deal worth $850,000.
Viktor Arvidsson also moved on after the Bruins and the winger couldn’t reach an agreement this summer. The 33-year-old, who scored 25 goals for Boston, will stay in the division after signing a two-year deal with Detroit worth $10 million, or $5 million annually.
He had reunited in Boston with a former assistant coach from Los Angeles, and Marco Sturm praised him openly. Now Arvidsson will link back up with his former head coach from Los Angeles, Todd McLellan, in Detroit.
In goal, the Bruins also turned the page on Joonas Korpisalo, sending the $3 million cap hit to the New York Rangers in a July 1 trade. Over two seasons in Boston, Korpisalo went 25-19-9 with a 3.03 GAA and a .894 SV%, and he’ll now battle Dylan Garand for a spot in the Rangers’ crease.
Boston-born defenseman Michael Callahan found a new home with Tampa Bay after dressing for five NHL games last season, all of them coming in the Bruins’ first 28 games. He finished the year in Providence and signed a one-year, $850,000 deal with the Lightning on July 1.
Riley Tufte is also headed to New Jersey after two seasons in the Bruins organization. He played 10 NHL games for Boston and scored a garbage-time power play goal in his first call-up during the 2025-26 season. In Providence, he led the team with 32 goals and was second with 56 points before signing a one-year, one-way deal worth $850,000.
Andrew Peeke’s exit came after months of uncertainty. Don Sweeney said throughout the season and into free agency that he remained in contact with Peeke’s representatives, but no deal got done by July 1.
Boston then added two more right-shot defensemen with similar roles on the opening day of free agency, and Peeke signed a one-year, $1 million contract with Utah on July 3. That’s well below AFP Analytics’ projection, which had him landing a four-year deal worth about $4 million per year.
Matej Blumel is also moving on, this time back home to Czechia. He joined the Bruins looking for a real NHL opening, but never found one.
He didn’t make the roster out of camp, was called up in November, got hurt, and then spent the rest of the season in Providence after coming off injured reserve. Blumel finished fourth on the P-Bruins with 52 points (21-31-52) and signed a four-year deal with HC Sparta Praha, just over an hour from his hometown of Tabor.
Georgii Merkulov is the one notable name still waiting for his next stop. He played in just one game with the Bruins this season and remains an unrestricted free agent as a Group 6 UFA this summer.
In Other News...
Bruins Trade Buzz Keeps Building Around Two Familiar Names
The Bruins have stayed quiet through most of the offseason, but that has not stopped the trade chatter from circling two familiar names. Boston still looks like a team that could try to improve through a deal rather than wait for the market to sort itself out, and center Pavel Zacha and defenseman Mason Lohrei keep coming up as players worth watching.
Zachas name keeps surfacing because of the contract math around his future in Boston, while Lohrei is being discussed more as a player who might benefit from a change of scenery. The timing matters, too, because the possibility around Lohrei could stretch into the preseason and even the opening of training camp, which leaves the Bruins with another decision point if they want to reshape the roster before the season gets too close. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Camp Could Force A Roster Squeeze Fans Know Too Well
With training camp still less than two months away, the Bruins are already staring at the kind of roster math that usually makes September feel longer than it should. The club has a full 84-game schedule ahead, and after a summer in which several NHL teams have reshaped their own depth charts, Bostons attention is turning inward to how many forwards and defensemen can realistically fit once camp opens and the lineup picture starts to sharpen.
Marco Sturm and Don Sweeney are going to have some hard cuts to make by late September, because the Bruins look to have more NHL-caliber skaters than clean openings. A recent look at the opening-night group trimmed the depth chart down to four lines, three pairs and the extra skaters, which only underscores how crowded things could get if everyone arrives healthy and pushes for a job. The one area that appears relatively settled is in goal, but the bigger question for Boston is how the rest of the roster sorts itself out before the season gets here. [Read more 🡒]