Will Lack Of Prospect Depth Force Bruins’ Approach To Retool?

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney made a series of moves at the trade deadline that ultimately sent seven Boston skaters to new homes, including the deal to trade captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers.

While the returns were heavily based on draft capital, Sweeney did add new players to the NHL roster, and some prospects, like forwards Fraser Minten and Will Zellers and defensemen Max Wanner and Daniil Misyul.

Bruins analyst Andy Brickley admitted on NESN’s “The Hockey Hub” podcast that he hasn’t done a “deep dive” into how much draft capital or cap space Boston will have in the offseason, but pondered which approach the front office would take for the retool.

“What I’ve learned over the last year plus is they don’t have enough young talent in Providence that’s pushing the veteran players,” Brickley said. “And if you don’t have that institutional depth, how are you going to get to that retool so it doesn’t take five years where these draft picks need to develop. It’s either the trade market or the free agency market and I’d be very curious to see which direction the Bruins want to go.”

For the 2025 draft, the Bruins have eight picks: one in the first round, two in the second and one in each of the remaining rounds.

To hear more from Brickley on “The Hockey Hub,” you can listen to the podcast on YouTube or Spotify.