In a clear admission that Elias Lindholm has not quite turned into the player they thought he would be after landing him in free agency, the Bruins didn’t hide their post-playoff analysis that they currently lack a frontline, legitimate No. 1 center on their roster.
At least they lack a No. 1 center in the way that Patrice Bergeron filled that role for the better part of two decades.
Or even in the way that, for one excellent season, Charlie Coyle stepped up into the void to temporarily replace Bergeron in some important ways before consistently keeping up with that excellence caught up to him. Coyle was obviously not able to maintain that level of play prior to getting traded away from the Black and Gold in the great B’s fire sale of 2025, and since then, the Bruins have operated without a proper setup man down the middle for David Pastrnak.
It’s the reason they rushed a teenage Matt Poitras into a top 6 center role a couple of years ago and settled into a “No. 1 center by committee” approach this season that saw Lindholm, Fraser Minten, and even Pavel Zacha get shifts there when things got desperate in the postseason.
Not-so-coincidentally, Pastrnak’s goal-scoring totals have gone down in the three seasons since Bergeron’s retirement from a higher water mark of 61 goals in 2022-23, and bottomed out with Pastrnak failing to reach 30 goals in a full season for the first time in 10 years, dating back to the last NHL season where he spent time playing in Providence. Pastrnak’s play-making skills have obviously flourished at the same time while driving his line with a career-high 71 assists this season, but an unspoken part of that development has been that it’s a byproduct of not actually having a center to drive his line.
“We all in this room recognize we don’t have a true number one [center], you know, and that’s something that we want to try to rectify, whether it’s this offseason or those [younger] guys growing into it,” said Cam Neely. “But it’s something that we know that’s needed [for the roster].”
The plain-spoken statement from Neely indicates that there are no high hopes that Lindholm is going to turn back into something resembling the 40-goal, 80-point guy they might be getting based on his career year in Calgary. The 31-year-old has attributed some of his Bruins struggles to back problems that have seen him produce a remarkably consistent 17 goals and either 47 or 48 points over the last couple of seasons, but those back woes didn’t stop him from playing a full 82 games two years ago or participating for Team Sweden in the Olympics this past season.
Instead, it’s become clear that the 30-year-old Lindholm is a player more suited for solid, no-frills third-line center duties rather than being a productive, dynamic top-line guy.
Lindholm is excellent on faceoffs and has an NHL shot when he gets the puck around the net, but he is remarkably prone to mistakes defensively despite his 200-foot player reputation and is very clearly not a line-driving center based on his skating and skill set.
At his most basic essence, Lindholm is essentially an $8 million per season (or just shy of it, anyway) complimentary player for the Black and Gold.
The best bet for the Bruins is that either 21-year-old Fraser Minten or 19-year-old James Hagens develops into that elusive No. 1 center a year or two down the line, with Minten even showing some very Bergeron-like qualities in his first full NHL season.
“I think they both have that skill set. They’re both a little different players. One’s more like Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] as far as a 200-foot player and maybe [doesn’t] see the ice as well as Hagens does. Hagens’ head is up all the time [and] he’s constantly looking to distribute. Fraser said to me at the exit meetings, he’s like, ‘wow. what a difference playoff hockey is compared to regular season hockey.’ So that experience for him was invaluable,” said Neely. “He realizes how things close quicker. There’s not as much time to do anything. Once he figures that out, like every player does over time, or most players do over time, I think he’s going to grow and continue to grow.
“Whether they either become number one centers is up to them and how that goes for them and what the path is for them. You know, we want to give these guys every opportunity to take a job that’s staring at them.”
Clearly, it’s also a great sign that Minten and Hagens were both selected to play for their respective countries at the 2026 IIHF World Championships, but in the meantime, it may mean that Pavel Zacha is the de facto No. 1 center until somebody else enters the equation with true frontline center credentials.
The 28-year-old Zacha is coming off career-highs with 30 goals and 65 points centering a surprisingly effective second line, and that’s probably where he hits best on a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Zacha disappointed a bit in the playoffs with just a goal and three points in the six-game series against the Sabres while battling through a high ankle sprain that clearly hampered his play, but he was a beast in Boston’s post-Olympic schedule, helping to carry them to the postseason.
That actually signifies another brewing challenge for the B’s as Zacha is entering the last year of his contract, coming off a career year and doing so in an NHL that is desperate for frontline centers of any type.
“Even at the trade deadline as you’re exploring, whether it’s this time or the summertime, you realize that when you do make a call about a player of that [No. 1 center] nature, the guy on the other side says there’s not even 32 of them in the league,” said Don Sweeney. “We feel pretty good this year that by committee, our guys did a good job [at No. 1 center]. And Fraser [Minten] spent some time, you know, 50 games in, he spent some time up in that [No. 1 center] spot, which is not an easy spot to play in. You’re seeing a hell of a lot harder matchups. You’re playing with a star player, and you’re trying to navigate at times. He did a good job.”
The dearth of available No. 1 centers around the league is even more apparent after old friend Coyle just signed a
