Bruins make first in-house signing of 2024 offseason
Just over a week away from the start of free agency, the Bruins officially handled business with one of their internal free agents Sunday, with defenseman Ian Mitchell inked to a one-year extension.
The deal is a two-way deal, and comes with a $775,000 cap hit at the NHL level.
A depth defenseman, the 25-year-old Mitchell appeared in 13 games with Boston last year, and recorded two assists and a plus-6 rating over that run. Mitchell also chipped in with 11 shots on goal, three hits, and 13 blocked shots over that brief NHL run with the Big B’s.
In Providence, the right-shooting Mitchell tallied six goals and 24 points in 42 games for the P-Bruins, and was second among Providence defensemen in points-per-game, with his 0.57 points per game trailing only Mason Lohrei and his 0.76 points per game.
Acquired from the Blackhawks in last year’s cap-dump trade that saw the Bruins part with Taylor Hall (and the exclusive rights to Nick Foligno), Mitchell was slated to be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent this summer.
A second-round pick of Chicago back in 2017, Mitchell has recorded four goals and 18 points in 95 career NHL games.
With Mitchell officially re-signed, Boston’s group of restricted free agents in the minor-league ranks is down to six, with forwards Joey Abate, Curtis Hall, and Marc McLaughlin all RFAs in need of new deals, while defensemen Alec Regula and Michael Callahan, along with goaltender Brandon Bussi, are also in need of new contracts for the 2024-25 season.
At the NHL level, forward Jesper Boqvist and goaltender Jeremy Swayman make up the club’s RFA group.
Ranking the Bruins' offseason needs
No. 5: A veteran third goalie
TORONTO, CANADA – APRIL 27: Jeremy Swayman #1 and Linus Ullmark #35 of the Bruins warm up prior to play against the Maple Leafs in Game Four of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. (Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
If the Bruins move on from Linus Ullmark at some point this summer, the initial belief is that either Brandon Bussi or Michael DiPietro will step up and serve as Jeremy Swayman’s backup.
Both Bussi and DiPietro are officially out of minor-league options, and given the time the Bruins have spent developing both goaltenders in the minor-league ranks, risking losing both players to the waiver wire at the end of 2024 training camp is of obviously limited interest.
Bussi has been recalled to the NHL on multiple occasions and served as a backup goalie for the Bruins multiple times, but he’s still yet to draw into an NHL contest. In the minors, the 6-foot-5 Bussi has posted a 48-17-9 record and .918 save percentage for the P-Bruins over three seasons. DiPietro, meanwhile, last played in the NHL in 2021-22 with Vancouver, and has an 0-2-0 record and .771 save percentage in three career NHL games (he was entirely too young and still a raw prospect when the Canucks threw him into action).
In essence, there’s a ton of unknown as it relates to NHL readiness with both players, and it might be enough for the Bruins to seek out an experienced, ‘No. 2B’ or ‘No. 3A’ kind of goalie to put on the depth chart in the event that neither Bussi nor DiPietro is ready to seize the opportunity in front of them. One thing that’s important to consider with the Bruins is that, organizationally, they tend to avoid trying to play a goalie 60 games a season. And even if Swayman gets the bag this summer (which he will), their management of Tuukka Rask during his prime and days as a big-money goalie tell you that they’ll want to avoid doing the same to him.
So, you need a goalie that you can trust for about 25-30 games, even if Swayman is your true No. 1.
Keeping in mind that you’re going to have to sign someone who would in theory be OK with potentially playing in the minors, some notable names that could be of interest to the Bruins include Chris Driedger (24 wins and a .917 in 39 AHL games this season, 67 career NHL games), Martin Jones (466 career NHL games), the 6-foot-6 Magnus Hellberg (a .926 save percentage in four games of NHL work over the last two seasons), and Ivan Prosvetov (146 career AHL games and 24 NHL games between Colorado and Arizona).
No. 4: A tone-setting bottom-six forward
SUNRISE, FLORIDA – MAY 08: Bruins players fight with Panthers players during the third period in Game Two of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena on May 08, 2024 in Sunrise, Florida. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
The bad news for the Bruins is that the Panthers are not getting full-on broken up just yet. Matthew Tkachuk is there for the long haul, and Sam Bennett is signed for another season. And even beyond those two, the Panthers have developed a knack for finding downright annoying bottom-six agitators, from Ryan Lomberg to Nick Cousins and beyond. It’s a skillset that they’ve identified and actually excelled at adding to their squad. That will allow the Panthers to remain a thorn in their side when it comes to physical play and their ability to pop the B’s in the mouth.
But there’s nothing that says that the Bruins can’t return the favor and juice up their bottom-six with snarl. Now, the Bruins did have some physicality in their bottom-six grouping this past season, from Trent Frederic to Jakub Lauko and the deadline addition of Pat Maroon. Even so, it still feels like the Bruins could use some more pace within that group, or perhaps a player who can dictate the terms of that shift a bit better than their current options. Looking for a game-changing physical presence like a prime Milan Lucic is like finding a needle in the haystack thouigh, so the kind of talent I’m talking about may be downright impossible for the Bruins to find. But when you look at how the playoffs are played, and namely the speed at which the game is being played, finding a player who plays with a bit more reckless abandon in terms of his puck pursuit and ability to score some goals should be high on Boston’s wish list.
One name that comes to mind here is Vancouver’s Dakota Joshua. A 6-foot-3, 206-pound left shot forward, Joshua is coming off a 2023-24 season that included 18 goals and 245 hits for the Canucks. That made Joshua one of just six players to record at least 18 goals and 200 hits in 2023-24. The other names on that list: Trent Frederic, Evander Kane, J.T. Miller, Brady Tkachuk, and Tom Wilson. Joshua also added four goals and eight points in 13 playoff games for the Canucks, and is a pending unrestricted free agent this summer.
If the focus is more on the physicality than the ability to contribute offensively, other names that could be of interest to the Black and Gold include Brandon Duhaime, Yakov Trenin, Cal Clutterbuck, and Kiefer Sherwood.
No. 3: Versatile, left-shot D
Apr 4, 2024; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm (27) is congratulated after his empty-net goal against the Carolina Hurricanes during the third period at PNC Arena. (James Guillory/USA TODAY Sports)
This may be a sneaky-big need for the Bruins, really.
With Derek Forbort and Matt Grzelcyk both expected to be on the outs as unrestricted free agent, the Bruins’ left-side depth chart currently features Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei, and Parker Wotherspoon. Beyond that, only Frederic Brunet and current OHLer Jackson Edward are left-shot defensemen signed for 2024-25.
And if last season told us anything, it’s that the Bruins cannot utilize Lindholm in a purely defensive role. Speaking at break-up day, Lindholm told me that he didn’t mind being utilized in a more defense-first role, but when you watched Lindholm, it felt obvious that he’s a player who’s at his best when he has his confidence rolling with some puck touches and offensive production. The Bruins gotta get him closer to a 50-50 split in terms of his deployment next season. And if Lohrei is going to develop into the best version of himself, he’ll need something similar (though more offensive-zone and power-play work will get the most out of Lohrei in the now). Wotherspoon is the wild card in all of this, but with just 41 games of experience last year (and just 53 in his career), he’s hardly a lock for full-time minutes.
So, if the Bruins go out hunting for a left-shot defense, what’s the move? I’d have to imagine that the Bruins would be looking for someone who’s more defense-first and can throw the body and deny inside ice. But as the recent tweaks to the Bruins’ system and the NHL game as a whole have confirmed, you can’t be a pure hammer with zero puck skills.
An interesting name on the free agent market is Brenden Dillon. The 6-foot-4 Dillon scored a career-high eight goals for the Jets a year ago, and has had three straight seasons of at least 20 points, 190 hits, and 100 blocked shots. Dillon played the majority of his Winnipeg run with Neal Pionk, but also had runs with Nate Schmidt and Dylan DeMelo, speaking to his ability to play with various right-shot complexions.
Other veteran free-agent options on the left side include Alec Martinez, Joel Edmundson, and Marco Scandella.
Beyond the trade market, if the Golden Knights are back in ‘dump’ mode after loading up with high-priced talents like Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl, the Bruins would be stupid not to call and inquire about some of their left-side defensemen like Brayden McNabb, Nic Hague, and Shea Theodore.
No. 2: A top-six scoring wing
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – APRIL 30: Brad Marchand of the Bruins and David Pastrnak look on from the bench during the second period of Game 5 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Maple Leafs at TD Garden. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
When we look at where it all went wrong for the Bruins in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it wasn’t about an inability to handle a forecheck or their defensive play. It was just that their scoring dried up at the worst possible time. That was always a concern for the ‘Moneyball Bruins’ when you looked at how the Bruins assembled their 2023-24 squad with about 28 dollars in cap space, and it indeed played out that way at the worst possible time.
It was only accelerated when the Bruins were forced to play without team captain Brad Marchand for by all means three of their final four games of the postseason,. with teams able to key in on superstar David Pastrnak and ‘let’ the rest of the Black and Gold’s limited offensive threats beat them.
That’s something that’s gotta get fixed this summer.
“Yeah, we need to fix and address that,” Sweeney admitted at break-up day when pressed on the playoff scoring woes. “The margins are small. They just are. The final three games of the series were 3-2, 2-1, 1-2. So you know, at the end of the day, as teams move through the playoffs, things tighten up [and] you have to find a way. We didn’t get inside quite enough in rebound situations that we might be able to take advantage of.
“So there are some things we need to address. And I need to address from the standpoint of free agency and or internal growth, I think [Charlie] Coyle, [Pavel] Zacha, a bunch of guys were able to step forward. And they were cast as a little bit of misfits in that in that regard. We didn’t see it that way. And I think they stepped forward and several other guys did too. We have to conquer that I have to be able to find some players that can come in and provide secondary scoring for us and key opportune times.”
The good news for the Bruins is that this is a good market for teams looking scoring help on the wings. In terms of unrestricted free agents, there’s both Sam Reinhart (57 goals this season) and Jake Guentzel (22nd-most goals in the NHL over the last three seasons) at the top of the market. But with players expected to make about $9 million per season on their next contract, the Bruins are likely looking at the next tier of free-agent scorers available. That group is still solid, with veteran players like Tyler Toffoli, Jonathan Marchessault, Matt Duchene, Anthony Mantha, Vladimir Tarasenko, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jake DeBrusk, and Patrick Kane available.
No matter who the Bruins sign here, you have to look at them and be 100 percent, fully convinced that they can be a top-six scorer for your club. This league has quickly become about high-end talent, and while having a souped-up third line is great, the Bruins have a desperate need for guys who can thrive with their other high-end talents up top.
No. 1: High-end center
May 6, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Panthers center Anton Lundell (15) and Bruins center Charlie Coyle (13) face-off during the second period in Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports)
If we’re being honest with ourselves, and especially when you look at who they were replacing, the Bruins probably got more than what you should’ve expected out of Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha in 2023-24. But if the Bruins are going to take their game to the next level, they need a true, high-end center to plug somewhere in their top six.
Just look at the current Cup contenders: The Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl while the Panthers have Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett. Hell, go to the final four and you’ll find a Rangers squad with Mika Zibanejad and Vinny Trocheck at center, while the Stars had Roope Hintz, Matt Duchene, and Wyatt Johnston. They also had guys like Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin, and Jamie Benn, all of whom rotate between wing and center.
And to be perfectly clear, the Bruins are not bridging the gap between themselves and those teams with one move at center this summer, but this summer has to come with the start of that process.
Keeping it to just free agents, Elias Lindholm and Chandler Stephenson stand out at obvious top options. Whether or not these guys are true No. 1 centers on Cup-winning teams is its own debate. (I’d argue they’re probably better as a No. 2 center on a Cup winner.) But the Bruins have the cap space to bring one of those guys in this summer, and it feels like a must. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos is also a pending UFA, though it’s admittedly hard to see him leaving Tampa (he’s been working out with Lightning teammates all offseason), and maximizing his longevity may see him transition to the wing by the end of his next deal.
What’ll be interesting to watch here is how the Bruins manage their spending at center this summer, and if they perhaps shift their focus to 2025’s free agent class, which could feature the likes of Draisaitl and Sidney Crosby.
