Bruins’ Don Sweeney Offers Insight To Boston’s Free Agent Signings

The Boston Bruins entered free agency on Saturday with only six forwards, six defensemen, and one goaltender signed to their NHL roster for 2023-24.

To fill a few of the holes, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney signed two veteran forwards in Milan Lucic and James van Riemsdyck along with defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to team friendly, low-cost one-year deals.

The deals may not have been flashy or what the fans were looking for, but the cap strapped Bruins could only afford to do so much. Boston didn't have the luxury of waiting out the free agency market.

"There is a risk and reward in the strategy and there were some teams that were in the position to wait it out," Sweeney told reporters on Friday, per team-provided transcripts. "Some teams had LTI situations that they may have been able to utilize and be patient in that regard and other teams were very aggressive on day one. From a standpoint of even going short term, but longer because they have projections that allow them to do it now, and I think it looks like we’re going to have a lot of flexibility moving forward."

"I think it looks like we're going to have a lot of flexibility moving forward."

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney

Sweeney also added 24-year-old forward Morgan Geekie with a two-year, $4 million contract, acknowledging the deal is a little bit of a gamble, which is not a common move for the Bruins.

"We made a move in being aggressive bringing in (Morgan) Geekie which is unpredictive," Sweened said. "It’s a reactionary thing because you don't know if he's going to be a non-qualifying offer in that situation, you just don't, but we were in the position to say can we bring in a younger player that is in a position of interest for us as a center, a right shot and hopefully he's on an upwards trajectory."

Fans may not understand the trade of Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks without getting something in return, but Sweeney explained the Bruins would still have the holes in their lineup if they didn't free up cap space.

"Yeah, I mean even in the Taylor Hall (deal) where we freed up enough space to do what we had to do; you aren't trying to walk a good player out of your lineup," Sweeney explained. "We had a really good team this year and we had a lot of really good players. We had tough decisions to make and we’re still waiting on some decisions."

The Bruins have a solid core led by Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak, Brad Machand and Hampus Lindholm. The addition of the veterans and possibly some of the clubs younger prospects could round out the roster.

"... We have a competitive core and we’re trying to complement that and allow some guys to grow. We have three players that filed for arbitration and two of those were on our team and an important part of that as well, that we have to factor in."