NHL
Don Sweeney has some decisions to make over a short period of time ahead of the trade deadline. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
The Boston Bruins have scored 127 five-on-five goals. Only six NHL clubs have more. It is an excellent sum for a team that started 2025-26 with only two proven goal scorers: David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie. It has been enough production to put the Bruins among the top eight in the Eastern Conference, four points clear of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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The question of how the Bruins would put enough pucks in nets was one asked not just inside team offices but also around the league.
“Everyone was. You guys were talking about it too,” coach Marco Sturm said to the media after a 6-3 Jan. 29 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. “How are we going to score more goals? So, here it is.”
Geekie (18 five-on-five goals) and Pastrnak (11) are leading the way. The Bruins also have a dependable middle class of reinforcement finishers: Viktor Arvidsson, Casey Mittelstadt and Fraser Minten, all of whom have 10 five-on-five goals.
Consider, however, the following shooting percentages: 23.81 percent, 22.22 percent and 16.13 percent. Those are the rates at which Mittelstadt, Geekie and Minten are finishing their chances. They are all career highs, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Meanwhile, the Bruins have 294 high-danger shots. It is the sixth-lowest total in the league. This aligns with the Bruins’ expected goals: 113.26, No. 26.
The team’s 13.74 delta between actual and expected goals is the second-largest differential, trailing only the Colorado Avalanche (16.73). It could be one reason the best-in-show Colorado Avalanche went 6-7-2 in their last 15 games. Regression was coming.
Something similar could happen to the Bruins.
It is not just that the Bruins are scoring more goals than they should. They are saving them beyond expectation too. They have allowed 105 five-on-five goals, well below their 130.86 xGA rate. Their minus-25.58 goal differential is lower than every team save for three. Jeremy Swayman has been excellent all season. Joonas Korpisalo has turned a corner in 2026.
The Bruins have beaten the odds for the first 57 games. The question is whether the floor will give out in the next 25.
General manager Don Sweeney has just four games with which to evaluate his team before the March 6 trade deadline. It will not give him much data to work with. Whether Pavel Zacha, ruled out for playing for the Czech Republic in the Olympics because of an upper-body injury, can return for any of those games is unknown. Who knows what degree of wreckage the remainder of the Olympics will inflict upon the Bruins’ seven participants.
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So Sweeney will have to determine which direction is best for a playoff team that is still building after a 28th-place finish in 2024-25. It may be in both ways: buying and selling.
As for the former, the Bruins’ chase of Rasmus Andersson signaled they are eager to improve their blue line. Specifically, the right side behind Charlie McAvoy.
They have two first-round picks in 2026 and 2027, although the Toronto Maple Leafs’ selection, acquired in the Minten trade, may be too valuable to cede. As for young players, the offensive potential of Mason Lohrei and Matt Poitras could make other GMs raise their hands.
But the fact that they targeted the 29-year-old Andersson clarifies the profile of additions they’d prefer to make: ones who fit the current life cycle. It would be out of character, in other words, to compete with other buyers and spend future assets on a 36-year-old right-shot defenseman such as Luke Schenn, regardless of how he’d help the 2025-26 roster.
Ideally, they want to add players who will be around to help Pastrnak (29 years old), McAvoy (28) and Swayman (27), and not just a right-shot defenseman. They could use a hand on the wing. They would not turn down a pace-pushing center. They have multiple long-term needs.
At the same time, Andrew Peeke and Viktor Arvidsson are on expiring contracts. Peeke, as a 27-year-old right-shot defenseman, has higher trade value than the 32-year-old Arvidsson. If a contender is eager to add right-side depth, the Bruins would be interested in adding to their pipeline. Ditto on Arvidsson, although the Bruins would not be as quick to break up their second line if the return is for a mid- to late-round selection.
Last year’s roster bust-up went a long way in reinforcing the future. Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov project to be long-term Bruins. James Hagens is developing well as a Boston College sophomore. The Beanpot MVP could arrive in short order. Will Zellers has 14 goals as a 19-year-old North Dakota freshman. But there is room for more prospects and picks.
So if that means taking bids on Peeke or Andersson or identifying a party interested in Korpisalo, the Bruins will have to consider their options. As well as this season has progressed, they are still an organization under construction.
Simultaneously buying and selling fits the bill.
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Fluto Shinzawa is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Boston Bruins. He has covered the team since 2006, formerly as a staff writer for The Boston Globe. Follow Fluto on Twitter @flutoshinzawa
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