tbl-2026 27 Atlantic Division Preview: Boston Bruins

Summary

Since their Stanley Cup Final lost in 2018-19 the Boston Bruins have been stuck in a good-but-not-great stretch of play that has seen them make the playoffs in all but one season, but fail to advance past the second round in any of them. Is there any reason to believe this year will be different? 2025-26 Record 45-27-10 (100 points) 3rd in Atlantic 2025-26 Record Against Lightning 0-3-1 2025-26 Goals For 268 (10th) 2025-26 Goals Against 247 (14th) 2025-26 Power Play 23.4% (9th) 2025-26 Penalty Kill 77.0% (24th) 2026-27 Division Odds +4000 2026-27 Stanley Cup Odds +10000 Stats via NHL, Natural Stat Trick. Odds from Hard Rock Bet as of 9/23/26 Off-season Additions JJ Peterka, Will Borgen, Connor Clifton, Ivan Ivan Off-season Departures Viktor Arvidsson, Joonas Korpisalo, Fabian Lysell, Riley Tufte, Matej Blumel, Andrew Peeke Rookie to Watch James Hagens – the Bruins reward for the one season they didn’t make the playoffs was the forward from Boston College who they drafted 7th overall in 2025. The 19-year-old made his debut last season and picked up an assist in his first game. That would be the only point he recorded in five games (split over the regular season and playoffs) but he should be racking up quite a few more as he fights for playing time somewhere in the middle-six for the Bruins. The speedy, two-way forward could be one of the foundational pieces for the Bruins as they look to move into their new era, and unlike some other recent top-ten draft picks, he’ll have plenty of supporting staff to help take the pressure off of him. Preview For David Pastrnak, there has to be some days when he looks around the locker room and wonder who all of these players are. Slowly, but surely, franchise icons like Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand have left the organization, leaving just Pastrnak behind. Once, the fresh-faced, high-scoring kid on the team, the 30-year-old forward is now the mentor for a crop of slightly younger Bruins looking to stay competitive in the relentless Atlantic Division. It was a somewhat interesting off-season for the Bruins who added J.J. Peterka and Will Borgen via trades, but other than that were fairly quiet in the free-agent market with defenseman Connor Clifton as their biggest addition. The moves should, in theory, make them slightly better than the team that was ousted by the Sabres in the first round of the playoffs last year, but with a resurgent Florida team gunning for the division crown, are the Bruins deep enough to be real playoff contenders? Pastrnak posted his fourth straight 100-point season, and is probably the best player in the league outside of the Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon triumvirate that has been dominating the Hart Trophy debate over the last few seasons. Boston also has four-time 30-goal scorer Pavel Zacha on the roster, so it’s not like they’re lacking elite talent up front. Their main issue is that things get questionable once the focus moves past that duo. Morgan Geekie, brother to the Lightning’s Conor, continued his late-20’s career revitalization as he scored 39 goals last season while Fraser Minton garnered a scattering of Calder Trophy votes with his 35-point debut season. Outside of that, there is a collection of nice-but-not-exciting forwards on the roster, which should give the young Hagens a shot at earning playing time in the top-six some time in the near future. Defensively, Charlie McAvoy is one of the few veterans that has been with the team as long as Pastrnak and is a true first-pairing defender. At least, he will be after his six-game suspension to begin the season ends. Hampus Lindholm is fine when he’s healthy, but after that things start to get a little thin on defense. In net, Jeremy Swayman bounced back from a rocky 2024-25 season with a solid 2025-26 campaign that saw him post a 2.71 GAA and .907 SV% and earn a Vezina finalist spot. Backing him up is Michael DiPietro, who has appeared in exactly one game in each of his previous four NHL seasons. One thing to note is that last season the Bruins allowed 818 high-danger chances at 5v5 which was the seventh-highest number in the league. They only allowed 70 high-danger goals (5th in the league) in part due to their goaltenders posting a .858 SV% on those chances. That is a lot of work to put on Swayman’s shoulders this year, especially considering he’ll probably get the bulk of the work in net this year with the relatively inexperienced DiPietro behind him. (hmmmm….could they be a possible landing spot for Jonas Johansson?) The Bruins are a team that is currently trying to return to relevance after a nice run of success. From a certain point of view, they’re not that much different than the Lightning. Offensively, they should be able to cobble together enough goals to be competitive, but can they help Swayman out enough to prevent some of the higher-octane offenses from outscoring them on a nightly basis?