NEWTON, Mass. — The Boston Bruins are in a unique position that they have not been in very often during Don Sweeney and Cam Neely’s decade-plus tenure leading the Original Six franchise.
They have the cap space (over $16 million to utilize), they have highly touted prospects that hold value around the league, they have a treasure trove of first-round picks AND they have NHL roster players who could be used as centerpieces in hockey trades. It may not work out in some cases — like Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, when the player has his own hand-picked landing spots in mind — but the Black and Gold have all the ingredients to put together an impactful, aggressive summer of roster improvement.
In other words, the Bruins could and should be players for whatever they would like as the offseason ramps up in the next couple of weeks, and they are keen on improving an NHL roster that they already know could use assistance and augmentation both up front and on the back end.
Certainly, the first-round exit to a Buffalo Sabres team that was knocked out in the very next round lets Boston know that they are not particularly close to the caliber of this season’s Stanley Cup finalists, Carolina and Vegas, as they put on an entertaining postseason show for hockey fans.
“Obviously throughout the year we felt like we were a little light in the top six, and that’s obviously an area that we still want to address,” said Neely. “On the back end, if the elusive right D that’s got some offense at the offensive blue line [becomes available], that would be helpful.
“Those are things that we’re still trying to target. If you look at the teams that advance [in the Stanley Cup playoffs], they are pretty stacked throughout their lineup.”
Congrats to Cam Neely and the folks at the @CamNeelyFdn for another great Cam Neely Invitational Golf tournament earlier this week. They raised $300,000 and continue to do the amazing work they’ve done for over 30 years supporting those directly impacted by cancer pic.twitter.com/PyO2IdJJkI
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) June 10, 2026
It remains to be seen if the Bruins chase after a free-agent winger like Buffalo Sabres forward Alex Tuch, who’s looking for a payday after torching the B’s in the first round of the playoffs, or if they go down the top-six center rabbit hole with big names like Larkin, Elias Pettersson, Auston Matthews, Nico Hischier and others to be named later potentially available this summer.
And there is Darren Raddysh and Rasmus Andersson at the top of the free-agent defenseman market expected to get top dollar on July 1.
Neely didn’t shy away from Boston being a mover and shaker this offseason as they look at trades and free-agent signings that are going to improve their current situation from last year’s promising 100-point season, saying there could be deals that will brighten the long-term picture as well.
“We are certainly going to give it a go. That is our hope. The start of the year, there were a lot more names on the potential UFA list that kind of dried up, so. … In talking with Don, coming out of the combine there was a lot of chatter about trades, so we’ll see where all of that goes,” said Neely, while speaking to the media this week at the Cam Neely Invitational golf tournament at the Charles River Country Club, where the B’s president and friends raised $300,000 for the Cam Neely Foundation in its 32nd year supporting families affected by cancer. “If it’s going to help us, I am all about being aggressive [on the trade front] to be honest with you.
“If it’s going to help us today, tomorrow and the next day, then for sure. We all know where our core group is and we’d certainly like to give them an opportunity to have [another] kick at the can. Last year was a good stepping stone, but we still have work to do.”
There is a middle tier of restricted free-agent-type players that could become available this summer with names like Mason McTavish, Sam Colangelo, Simon Nemec and Olen Zellweger already circulating, with the Bruins having pretty strong trade history with the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils organizations.
Something where the B’s can buy in at a lower level on a younger player and then reap the NHL development rewards would make a lot of sense for Boston, and would be keeping in mind with the younger group they are building.
Interestingly, Neely opined that the UFA markets are pretty thin this season across the NHL because most star, high-impact players – the kind that historically would be the big fish on the open market — were loading up on maximum eight-year contracts with their current team prior to the CBA changing for next season, and with the NHL doing away with the eight-year term contract limits for players. The new collective bargaining agreement in play for next season scales back contracts to maximum seven-year deals for players re-signing with their own teams, and six-year contract limits to teams signing unrestricted free agents to new contracts, along with the new 84-game regular seasons that will be in effect beginning next year.
“I think some of it has to do with [the NHL] going away from eight-year [contracts],” said Neely. “I think players and agents said ‘Hey, this is the last time you’re going to be able to get that extra year, so take advantage of it.’ That’s the only thing I think of. You may see more guys down the road get to free agency, but I think it was because of that eighth year [on contracts].”
Chasing after players in the NHL is not a cut-and-dried endeavor. In today’s NHL, the player in many cases has to actually want to play for your team, as the B’s found out last season when Andersson correctly picked Vegas over Boston and found himself in the Stanley Cup Final this month. Sometimes the Bruins have landed those big targets in the recent past like they did with Hampus Lindholm and Taylor Hall among others, and sometimes they’ve had to move on to Plan B and Plan C when things didn’t play out for them as hoped or planned.
The good news is that the Bruins have every single available tool in the box in order to land whatever they need this summer, and they plan to be aggressive when it comes to improving a team that showed they were worthy of the investment during this entertaining past season in the Hub. That puts Boston under a spotlight where they need to execute big moves with the same precision they used in blowing things up and rebounding in a big way this past year.
