It appears that Jake DeBrusk’s time with the Boston Bruins has come to an end.
The winger is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career on Monday and there’s no talk of a contract extension with the team.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman appeared on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer on Thursday and was asked about DeBrusk’s market this summer. According to Friedman, the Bruins have conceded that DeBrusk is going to test free agency and that the Oilers are among the teams interested.
“I’ve heard a few places. I’ve heard Seattle, I’ve heard the two Alberta teams, I’ve heard Nashville. There are a lot of teams looking for scoring. The fact that Boston is basically conceding that he’s going to the market means that DeBrusk knows there’s something out there for him.”
The Bruins selected DeBrusk with the 14th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft and he scored 138 goals and 266 points over 465 games in seven seasons with the club. He scored 16 goals as a rookie in 2017-18, broke out with 27 goals the following season, and helped the Bruins reach the Stanley Cup Final with 11 points in 24 playoff games that year.
Despite the strong start to his career in Boston, DeBrusk frequently found himself in trade rumours. He fell behind Nick Ritchie and Taylor Hall on the team’s depth chart during the shortened 2021 season, scored only five goals and 14 points over 41 games, and found himself a healthy scratch on multiple occasions.
Friedman reported in November of that year that the Bruins and DeBrusk’s camp were working on a trade for a change of scenery. Nothing materialized and DeBrusk returned to form in 2021-22 with 25 goals in 77 games. He inked a two-year, $8 million contract extension during the season and scored 27 and 19 goals in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Back in February, Jimmy Murphy of Boston Hockey Now quoted an anonymous NHL executive who said that the Bruins might consider moving DeBrusk before the trade deadline because there hadn’t been any progress on a contract extension.
“Does he wind up back west as a playoff rental for a contender out there – we’ve all heard the Oilers rumors – or does he become a playoff rental for the Bruins,” one NHL source asked Boston Hockey Now recently. “It sure doesn’t seem like he’s signing an extension – if he signs one – before the season’s over.”
The Oilers are always among the teams suggested when DeBrusk finds himself in the rumour mill because he’s from Edmonton and his father, Louie DeBrusk, played for the team in the 90s and is now the colour commentator on their local broadcasts.
Now that he’s a free agent, will DeBrusk become an Oiler? When it comes to top-six left-handed forwards, the team has Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evander Kane, and Dylan Holloway under contract, so DeBrusk could be an option to fill Warren Foegele’s spot as a second- or third-line scorer if the latter isn’t re-signed.
