Five Bruins Takeaways After Franchise-Altering 2025 NHL Trade Deadline

The 2025 NHL Trade Deadline will go down as one of the most important in Bruins history, and the franchise hopes the moves they made Friday will benefit them in the long run.

Boston traded multiple core pieces from its record-setting 2022-23 season. Brad Marchand headlined those trades with the former captain joining defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

A lot happened, so we’ll go through the four main takeaways for the Bruins.

New Era
General manager Don Sweeney told reporters that the Bruins would not name a new captain for the rest of the season. However, this team is Charlie McAvoy’s and David Pastrnak’s, with the defenseman serving as the favorite to be B’s next captain. Pastrnak continues to play at a high level despite the lack of results for Boston, and McAvoy showed at the 4 Nations Face-Off that he can be a game-changer. Jeremy Swayman is the ace goalie, and the Black and Gold hope that this season is a mirage in the 26-year-old’s career and that better defensive play can help the netminder play at a level he showed in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Matt Poitras, John Beecher and Mason Lohrei will get plenty of opportunities to shine for the rest of the season, and the Bruins hope that the young trio can continue to grow their games and become key contributors in the next era of Bruins hockey.

Getting younger, faster
Boston’s trade deadline deals were shocking. However, it’s not surprising to see the B’s depart with some of their slower players on the roster. Despite the record-setting 2022-23 season, the Black and Gold were rocked by the Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. They got a similar result a season later, so it felt natural for the Bruins to try to get tougher to meet the tenacity of teams in the postseason.

However, that ended up being a miscalculation that was also affected by injuries. The defense suffered this season, and the Bruins weren’t able to consistently score goals to keep up in a high-scoring game. Instead, Boston was stuck playing grind games, which is not a recipe for a Stanley Cup contender.

Sweeney needed to pivot or risk losing upcoming unrestricted free agents for nothing. Overall, the Bruins did well to get solid returns. Casey Mittelstadt, Fraser Minten and Henri Jokiharju are intriguing players who are under 30 years old. Marat Khusnutdinov and Jakub Lauko are also solid fill-in pieces. The most fascinating asset the Bruins acquired was William Zellers from the Colorado Avalanche. The B’s needed to boost their prospect pool and acquiring the top goal scorer in the USHL is a great way to do that.

Draft capital
The NHL draft wasn’t a big focus for the Bruins and for good reason. The Bruins were correct to trade picks to try to bolster a roster for a postseason run. However, if you’re not set up for contention, it’s important to pivot as soon as possible. Boston did that by acquiring the St. Louis Blues’ 2025 second-round pick, the Carolina Hurricanes’ 2025 second-round pick, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2026 first-round pick and the Panthers’ 2027 second-round pick.

Boston acquired more assets, which it can use to boost its prospect pool or possibly swing a trade for another star in the future. It was a good return for the Bruins from their trade deadline deals.

Return on Marchand
Alright, let’s address the elephant in the room. The Florida pick was the only asset the B’s got from the Marchand trade. First of all, we don’t know what, if any, offers there were for Marchand, who was injured before the deadline and is a pending 36-year-old unrestricted free agent. He also has a partial no-trade clause, so he wasn’t just going to go to any team. Also, Marchand is a franchise legend and sacrificed so much for the team. Boston also likely wanted to do good by its former captain and give him a chance at winning another Stanley Cup. A conditional pick might not feel like a lot, but it probably was the reality of the market, and Sweeney needed to do what was best for the franchise.

What next?
An important note from Sweeney’s news conference was that these moves do not mean the Bruins are in rebuild mode. There’s a fair amount of parity in the NHL, so the B’s believe that with the necessary moves, they can return to contention again. If stars like Pastrnak and McAvoy continue to be steady on the ice, a new philosophy could be the right direction for the franchise. It might be hard to envision that one day after the NHL trade deadline, but things change quickly in sports, and the gears could shift in favor of Boston if things play out they way it hopes.