Marco Sturm hints at the Bruins’ offseason plans to improve roster

Bruins head coach Marco Sturm may have said that he 'loves' what the Bruins have, even without any new additions to the roster. Whether or not he actually believes that is probably its own debate (and I gotta say, I don't love his odds if we bring out some truth serum). But even if he's putting a happy face on the current state of the B's roster, Sturm is not burying his head in the sand when it comes to the fact that this is a Black and Gold squad with a lot of needs.

Particularly up front, with the 2024-25 Bruins lacking much of a punch when David Pastrnak and/or Morgan Geekie were on the bench. That's not hyperbole either. In over 2,031 minutes with Geekie and/or Pastrnak on the ice last season, the Bruins scored 132 all-situation goals. But in the 2,942 minutes and change with both players on the bench, Boston scored just 90 goals.

It's enough to make adding more firepower the No. 1 priority for most fans, and with Sturm giving a brief teaser into those potential plans come this summer.

"I think we hopefully want to add a few pieces up front, but overall, I do like our core," Sturm revealed at his introductory press conference with the Bruins earlier this month. "I think that we just probably need a little bit more."

That's putting it lightly. In addition to those ugly numbers highlighting the two-man army that was Boston's offense in 2024-25, David Pastrnak was also the only Bruins skater to record at least 60 points during the season, making the Bruins one of just seven teams in the league to have no more than one 60-point skater. Nashville, San Jose, Seattle, and Vancouver were the other teams to have just a single 60-point skater, while the Ducks and Islanders had zero 60-point skaters, proving that things could always (somehow) be worse.

And when you look at Boston's current roster, it's not as if that situation is going to fix itself without the Bruins making any personnel changes.

Sturm and the Bruins, seemingly, know this.

"And I think in our DNA, in the Bruins DNA, playing good defensively, it's not going to change, but we have to find a way to be more productive offensively," Sturm admitted. "I think that's going to be our goal, and not a sure challenge, but that's what we're going to address from from day one."

If the Bruins are indeed adding up front like Sturm said, an obvious focus could come in unrestricted free agency next month. If the Bruins go the free agency route, the Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner is the top name on the market up front, though rumors have yet to link Marner to Boston, which at this point in the game does mean something. Beyond Marner, though, there are some notable options on the wing, such as Brock Boeser (25 goals last season, and 40 in 2023-24) and Nikolaj Ehlers (at least 24 goals in six of his 10 NHL seasons).

This is where it's worth mentioning that Boeser does spend his offseasons training with current Bruins center Casey Mittelstadt (making them a potential one-two kind of connection), and that Ehlers does possess the speed that the Bruins may look at as a fit to fix their ailing transition and zone-entry game.

But both players will cost a pretty penny in what's a pretty thin market at the top, and with a couple of noteworthy goal scorers already off the board with the Blackhawks' Ryan Donato and the Stars' Matt Duchene both re-upping with their current clubs ahead of the start of free agency.

The Bruins could also go the offer sheet route, or look to acquire a player from a cap-strung team for pennies on the dollar by weaponizing their own cap space this summer, which is what the Kraken did when they nabbed Mason Marchment from the Stars for a third- and fourth-round pick earlier this week.

Any and every weapon to simply add more offensive talent — and that's really the need here... offensive talent — should be on the table for the Bruins this offseason when it comes to augmenting their roster. Especially when it's basically a lock that you will qualify for the postseason (or be in it 'til the very end) if you finish in the top half of the league in scoring as a team.

"How do we evolve and move our roster forward? Our pro staff has to do the work required and our scouts [have to do the work] in terms of the draft," Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, who was given a two-year extension, said. "This is about a growth opportunity for the organization as well, and Marco is a big part of that moving forward now. So, we will reshape."