5 August Predictions for Bruins Ahead of Training Camp

The Boston Bruins’ 2026-27 regular season is approaching, with rookie camp and training camp getting underway in less than a month. 

Over the summer, Don Sweeney set out to add speed and skill, and did so by acquiring JJ Peterka. That was not all the Bruins needed, though. The front office wanted to rectify the lack of a 1C, but that’s a lot easier said than done. Instead, the Bruins added depth behind Charlie McAvoy and created a new goaltending tandem with Jeremy Swayman and Michael DiPietro. 

The Bruins, as many teams do in the NHL, still have several decisions to make. Cam Neely called on the younger players to be fighting for a full-time role, but there’s an excess of veteran forwards and defensemen still vying for roster spots, no captain, and the team’s top defenseman will be sitting for the first six games of the year. 

Training camp will provide some answers, but while we’re still in August, it’s time to make a few predictions.

There are two extremely worthy candidates to wear the ‘C’: Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak. The Bruins will go with neither for the upcoming season. During the Jimmy Fund telethon, Cam Neely said he doesn’t know if the Bruins need their guy, “unless there is that one guy that really stands out.” Marco Sturm also said he liked the leadership group on breakup day in May, and he doubled down in a recent conversation with Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald.

With nobody standing out and the head coach liking what the team has, why change it? 

The Bruins, without a captain, hit the 100-point mark and landed in the playoffs. The lack of a captain is not weighing them down by any means; if anything, it proved to work. The committee of leaders extends beyond McAvoy and Pastrnak. Hampus Lindholm wears the third ‘A,’ and Elias Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, and Jeremy Swayman are leaders in the room. 

It’s not worth the possibility of alienating the leadership group by choosing one set voice. 

The Bruins’ fourth line of Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly, and Mark Kastelic will not go anywhere. Last season, the line embraced the Bruins’ “tough out” identity and put in hard, physical shifts on a nightly basis. They are not here to put up a tremendous amount of points, but 22 from each of them during the 2025-26 season was more than expected. For Kastelic, it was a career-high, and for Jeannot, it was the second-most he’s posted in his NHL career. 

The Bruins have depth options and many candidates for the fourth line. Matt Poitras, though unsigned, is one of the biggest threats to dismantle the line, and for good reason. He is coming off a full season in Providence, and one where both Don Sweeney and Trent Whitfield noticed his development trend in the right direction. However, Sean Kuraly is the prototype 4C. There’s a reason the Bruins brought him in, and so long as he can continue to win faceoffs (51.1% last year) and kill penalties, it’s hard not to envision a roster spot for the 33-year-old. 

There may be more skilled options fighting for a spot on the Boston roster, but these three already know their role. 

The Bruins have not been ones to rush their prospects, and it does not sound like they are in any hurry to do it with James Hagens. Cam Neely said “we’ll see” about Hagens during the Jimmy Fund telethon, and added that younger players should be “licking their chops” for a full-time spot in Boston. 

Hagens has taken all of the right steps in his development path to this point. The Bruins can easily look at what the New York Rangers did for Gabe Perreault, who, in his first full pro season, played 20 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack before a December call-up. Once up to the NHL, Hagens’ BC linemate did not look back and had 27 points (12-15–27) in 49 games. 

It is reasonable for the Bruins to do the same with Hagens. I believe they won’t need to. 

The Bruins have been pretty open about Hagens playing on the wing, which gives him an easier entry point to the professional game. He got his first taste of the NHL last season, which included three playoff games, and now he will have a full training camp to prove he belongs. Plus, the Bruins have a coach who embraces working with younger players and has been open about his desire to work with younger talent.

Charlie McAvoy is sitting for the first six regular-season games after a slash to Zach Benson in Round 1. That opens the gates for a lot of options, which is great because the Bruins have 10 NHL-capable defensemen. Mason Lohrei is one of those, and while it may look like he’s boxed out of the lineup, he told the Boston Globe’s Jim McBride that he’s leaving the past in the past and is embracing the competition at camp this fall. 

Will Borgen and Connor Clifton help bolster the defensive depth behind McAvoy, and Don Sweeney pointed right to the first six games of the season as an opportunity to workshop defensive pairings. 

“It’s really about how the… you know, again, if the first six games, Charlie’s out of the lineup, [Borgen] might play in different roles,” Sweeney said on July 1. “I think it’s about finding the right partners for our guys, and maybe that means Mason goes back to the left side as well, but he’s shown he can play both sides, and so that’s a real asset for us.”

With McAvoy gone, not only does a spot open up on the right side of the blue line, but it also opens one up on the power play. Lohrei showed he can do both, and he should have that opportunity come the start of the season. That should be enough for Lohrei to reinsert himself into the Bruins’ plans for the rest of the regular season and give the coaching staff a tough call to make once McAvoy returns. 

The books are down on the Bruins, again. They have the longest odds in the Eastern Conference at winning the Stanley Cup, the Atlantic Division, and making it to the postseason, according to FanDuel. 

The major sportsbooks also set their point totals anywhere between 87-90 points. That’s too low. The Bruins improved their roster from last season, and yes, I know that doesn’t mean they’re going to eclipse 100 points, but dropping 10 seems like a reach. They added JJ Peterka, who is an immediate playmaking option to play alongside David Pastrnak. Morgan Geekie has emerged as a goal-scoring threat over the last two seasons in Boston, with 72 goals and a 21.7% shooting clip to show for it. Jeremy Swayman is a top-five goalie in the NHL, and he has proven he can carry the load when the Bruins need points. 

The competition around the Bruins is where it gets tough. The Bruins got better, but so did the teams around them. Tampa Bay, Florida, and Montreal are not going anywhere, with Buffalo still well in the conversation. Finding a spot in the top three will be tough, as it was last year, but it’s hard to believe that this iteration of the Boston Bruins will not be contending for a playoff spot come April. 

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