It is no secret that the Boston Bruins entered free agency with a ton of needs in what they hope will be a retool going into the 2025-26 season. A center, a goal-scoring wing, and a right-shot defenseman were their biggest needs, and the jury is out as to whether or not they addressed their needs, or not to be good enough to get back into the Stanley Cup Playoffs next spring.
We are still in the first week of July, and there is still plenty of time for more moves through trades for Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, but it feels like he missed signing a player that would have solved their goal-scoring needs on the wing.
Boston Bruins will regret not signing Brock Boeser in free agency
It had been rumored for some time that Brock Boeser and the Vancouver Canucks relationship was fractured enough that he was hitting free agency. He did hit free agency, and there were rumors from NHL insiders that the Black and Gold were going to go after him. In the end, he remained with the Canucks in a very strange turn of events, but this was a swing and a miss by Boston.
Sweeney acquired Viktor Arvdisson from the Edmonton Oilers right before free agency began, and he ended up being the goal-scoring wing addition to the lineup, unless you're banking on Tanner Jeannot finding his 2021-22 goal-scoring magic he had with the Nashville Predators. Boeser ended up signing with Vancouver for seven years with an AAV of $7.25 million, which is something that the Bruins could have done and done it easily.
If they got Boeser on that AAV, then Sweeney doesn't need to go on the bottom-six binge he went on and spread out his cap space to a handful of players when he had younger players in the organization who could fill in those spots. Fraser Minten and Matthew Poitras have proved they are NHL-ready, while the jury is still out somewhat on Fabian Lysell.
This is all speculation, but if the Bruins struggle to score next season, you won't have to look far as to why. A goal-scoring wing, aside from Arvidsson, was not addressed in free agency, and Boeser getting a $7.25 million AAV is going to look pretty darn good once the cap goes up over the coming years. There are always missed signings every season in free agency, and this is one that the Black and Gold will regret not getting done.
