Top 3 Takeaways from Bruins’ 2025-26 Season – Hockey Writers – Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins’ 2025-26 season has come to an end following their first round playoff exit by the Buffalo Sabres. Looking back at the season as a whole, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It was certainly a big step up from their 2024-25 season, but it was far from perfect and leaves some big question marks going into next season.

But today, the focus is on the positive. The Bruins performed better than most people expected in 2025-26, and there are three big, positive takeaways from the season.

The Bruins Core Is Here and Ready

The past few seasons have been a time of change for the Bruins as they moved away from players who have been the core of the team for over a decade, guys like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara, and Tuukka Rask. They’ve been putting together new talent for a while now, but this offseason felt like the perfect solution for a new team, guys signed to long-term contracts, GM Don Sweeney and a front office that has to figure out how to build successfully.

The Bruins’ core does a lot in 2025-26. David Pastrnak scored 100 points for the fourth consecutive season and grew into a multi-leader with Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm serving as the team’s lead, all wearing the ‘A’ with no captain named in 2025-26. Speaking of two defensemen, McAvoy scored a career-high 61 points in 69 games while Lindholm, returning to the ice following an injury that sidelined him for most of 2024-25, has 26 points in 67 games, matching his tally from 2023-24.

Morgan Geekie, who signed a six-year contract last summer to be part of the team’s long-term plans, led the Bruins with 39 goals. He scored the most goals in both goals and points (68). Elias Lindholm, who also signed a long-term deal before the 2024-25 season, had 17 goals and 48 points, nearly matching his 2024-25 totals despite appearing in fewer games in 2025-26.

Arguably, most importantly, Jeremy Swayman is back from a disappointing 2024-25. He finished the 2025-26 season with a 31 – 18 – 4 record with a 2.71 goals against average (GAA) and a .908 save percentage. While these are slightly below his career average, he put up these numbers while playing behind one of the worst defenses the NHL has ever had, competing only with what was in front of him in 2024-25. He faced the fourth most dangerous shots overall, and the fifth most dangerous shots per 60 (8.38) among the 37 goalies who played at least 2,000 minutes. He had a .838 save percentage in high-danger situations, sixth among goaltenders.

Swayman was arguably the Bruins’ most consistent player in 2025-26, keeping the team involved in games it had no business doing at times. His efforts made him a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.

The Bruins have no talent. They have a large group of players that are fully vested in 2025-26, and won’t start hitting free agency until 2030. Now the question becomes whether Sweeney can build in the center he has assembled. But that’s a question for another day.

Appearance of “Kid Line”

After several seasons of struggling to find exciting prospects in the pipeline and onto the Bruins’ roster, there was finally success in 2025-26. In the last few games of the regular season and in the postseason, head coach Marco Sturm was running a ‘kids line’ on the third line, consisting of their three young players: Fraser Minten (21), Marat Khusnutdinov (23), and James Hagens (19).

For Minten, he is the obvious leader of this group. Acquired from Brandon Carlo’s deal at the 2024-25 trade deadline, he quickly blossomed into one of the best additions Sweeney brought in at the 2025 deadline. The young forward had 17 goals and 35 points in 82 games, his first full NHL season. He was also a plus-21 with a 49.3% faceoff winning percentage. He showed growth throughout the season, making improvements from the beginning to the end of the season, and earned himself the NESN 7th Player Award. There is still room for him to grow, but there is definite excitement surrounding him as the 2025-26 season moves into the rearview mirror.

Khusnutdinov was also a 2025 trade deadline acquisition following his struggles to find his position with the Minnesota Wild. While he was initially healthy for a few points early in the season, like Minten, he grew and improved over the course of 2025-26. He finished the season with 15 goals and 33 points in 77 games.

New to the lineup is Hagens, who signed his entry-level contract after the conclusion of his sophomore season at Boston College. The Bruins’ 2025 first-round pick, the seventh pick, has a lot of expectations surrounding him. In limited performances, appearing in just two games during the regular season and three games during the postseason, he showed flashes of power. He was recently named to Team USA at the IIHF World Championships, giving him the opportunity to get more comfortable and experience playing against the world’s top talent.

There is reason to be excited about the Bruins’ youth movement at the end of the 2025-26 season. Hopefully next season will bring more opportunities to see these three guys play together and continue to grow in the NHL.

Marco Sturm is an excellent host

It was far from a perfect season for the Bruins, but in his first year as head coach, Marco Sturm has done a solid job. I think he got a lot out of the lineup that Sweeney and the front office gave him. This was not a team expected to make the finals, but they did, and turned it around in his first season at the helm.

Most of the boys reached their peak career levels in 2025-26. Geekie and McAvoy have already been mentioned, but Pavel Zacha scored 30 goals for the first time in his career and a new high score (65). Casey Mittelstadt matched his career high in goals (15) and Mark Kastelic had career highs in both goals (12) and points (22). This success is obviously not entirely down to coaching, but it shows that Sturm made good decisions throughout the season to put guys in positions that gave them opportunities to flourish.

Sturm dominated the locker room, got the guys to buy in, and believe in him, which is always important for a first-year coach. He also clearly has the front office in his corner.

Also, there are things that need to be improved next season, more pressing to get a penalty kill, and stop bad turnovers. But for a first-year coach, this season has been a win and he’s certainly earned the trust of the front office, team, and fans to see what he can do going forward.

Offseason decisions

The Bruins are in the first week of the season with big decisions ahead of them that need to be addressed. They have unrestricted free agents in Viktor Arvidsson and Andrew Peeke and a draft to prepare by the end of June. The Bruins will have $16.5 million in cap space, and without the pressure, expensive contract extensions that need to be granted, they have the wiggle room to go out and sign a good name in free agency. The question is, do they all fit in the center or the defender?

A difficult question. While the Bruins’ defensive woes in 2025-26 were not the fault of the blue line, something needs to be done to stop leaving Swayman out to dry almost overnight. On the other hand, while they have exciting young centers in Minten and Hagens, how much should they bet on them moving forward next season? Or would it be better to bring in an established higher education institution? However, that also raises a number of question marks given Sweeney’s track record and ability to prioritize “grit” players in free agency.

All that to say, while the 2025-26 season is officially behind the Bruins, there is a lot to look forward to in 2026-27. If the front office can nail this offseason, combined with the team being able to build on their success from last season, Boston is a real contender next season.