The 2024-25 NHL season could not have turned out any worse for the Boston Bruins.
After winning a playoff series last spring for the first time since 2021, the B's were expected to take the next step and win multiple rounds as a true contender in the Eastern Conference this season.
The front office made bold bets in free agency to address roster weaknesses by signing center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov to long-term, big-money contracts. Jeremy Swayman, who took over as the undisputed No. 1 goalie following the Linus Ullmark trade, also signed one of the richest deals for a goalie in league history.
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The Bruins have been a fast-starting team in recent years. That wasn't the case this season, though. A 8-9-3 start cost Jim Montgomery his job as head coach. Following an initial uptick in performance after Joe Sacco took over on an interim basis, the Bruins reverted back to what they truly were -- a below-average team.
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And then the March 7 trade deadline hit. The B's dealt away a lot of veterans, including Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, Justin Brazeau and Brandon Carlo. This was the team essentially waving the white flag on the season.
The Bruins wrapped up their 2024-25 regular season schedule Tuesday with a 5-4 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils, giving them a final record of 33-39-10. The B's are in last place in the Eastern Conference, which hasn't happened since the 1996-97 campaign.
The B's wound up winning the NHL Draft Lottery that year and selected future Hall of Fame center Joe Thornton with the No. 1 overall pick. They'll need similar luck at next month's lottery.
But before we look forward to what should be a busy offseason for Boston, let's look back at why this season went so surprisingly bad.
Bad goaltending
Two pillars of the Bruins over the last 16 years have been quality goaltending and a fundamentally sound defensive structure. These two factors have allowed the B's to win 768 games since the start of the 2008-09 season -- the most of any team during this span. Even when the offense dipped a bit, they could always fall back on good goaltending and defense to win games and get through slumps.
That wasn't the case this season.
The Bruins had a .884 save percentage (27th in the league) this season, which was a massive dropoff from the .911 save percentage (third-best) they had last season.
In fact, the last time the Bruins didn't rank top 10 in team save percentage was the 2016-17 season.
Jeremy Swayman finally became the No. 1 goalie in Boston after the Bruins traded away Linus Ullmark last July. But Swayman didn't join the team until a few days before the start of the regular season because of a contract dispute. By the time Swayman and the B's reached an eight-year, $66 million deal, the 26-year-old goalie had missed all of training camp and the preseason.
We can debate how much that delay impacted his slow start, but it certainly didn't help. Swayman ended up starting and playing in a career-high 58 games, but his .892 save percentage and 3.12 GAA were by far the worst of his career. His minus-9.1 goals saved above expected ranked 92nd among 102 qualifying goalies, per MoneyPuck.
Boston's backup, Joonas Korpisalo, was acquired as part of the Ullmark trade and played OK. Korpisalo posted a .893 save percentage and a 2.97 GAA -- a slight improvement from his performance for the Senators last season. He is signed for three more seasons, and it could be difficult to find a team willing to take on his $4 million cap hit.
The Bruins were not built to survive poor goaltending. They didn't have enough scoring depth to overcome bad defense and lackluster goaltending.
A bounce back from Swayman next season is the easiest way for the B's to get back on track. He's not as bad as he played this season. Prior to this year, Swayman's .920 career save percentage was the sixth-highest in the league between 2020-21 and 2023-24. Can he get back to a top five or top 10 level? The Bruins really need it.
Lack of goal-scoring, especially on the power play
Teams can survive one or two veterans underperforming offensively. But when it's a large chunk of the lineup not meeting expectations, that's where it gets dicey.
The Bruins wrapped up the season ranked 27th in goals scored (222) and 29th in power-play percentage (15.2). Good luck making the playoffs with that kind of offensive output.
David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie had tremendous seasons. Pastrnak led the team in goals (43), assists (63) and points (106). He reached 40 goals for the fourth straight season and 100-plus points for the third consecutive year. Geekie scored a career-high 33 goals. He's the first Bruins player to score 30-plus goals not named Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or Pastrnak since Loui Eriksson in 2015-16.
Outside of Pastrnak and Geekie, most of the team underperformed offensively.
Charlie Coyle tallied career highs of 25 goals and 60 points last season. He had just 22 points (15 goals, seven assists) in 64 games before being traded to the Avalanche on March 7. Pavel Zacha scored 21 goals and at least 57 points in each of the last two seasons, but he ended this season with 14 goals and 47 points. Trent Frederic was expected to contribute more offensively this season but ended up tallying just eight goals and 15 points in 57 games before being dealt to the Oilers in March.
Justin Brazeau was too inconsistent this season after a strong 2024 playoff run. He was traded to the Wild in March after scoring only one goal in his last 20 games for Boston. John Beecher scored three goals in 78 games after tallying seven in 52 games last season.
Young center Matthew Poitras was expected to make a larger impact this season after a good 2023-24 rookie campaign. He scored one goal in 33 games and spent most of the season in the AHL.
The Bruins didn't get much offense from their blue line, either. Before suffering an injury at the 4 Nations Face-off, Charlie McAvoy was producing 1.17 points per 60 minutes, which was the lowest of his career.
The power play was a major weakness, too. It was awful all season. And not only did the power play fail to score, the Bruins gave up a league-high 13 shorthanded goals. Instead of giving the Bruins a boost and stealing some momentum, the power play often did the opposite.
Finding an impact forward in the offseason needs to be a top priority for general manager Don Sweeney.
Newcomers didn't make strong impact
The Bruins needed to add a top-six center in the offseason after losing Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci following the 2022-23 campaign. They signed Elias Lindholm to a seven-year, $54.25 million deal on Day 1 of free agency. Lindholm was expected to be the team's No. 1 center and make a huge impact in all three zones as a two-way player.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, Lindholm has been a disappointment. He tallied just 47 points (17 goals, 30 assists) in 82 games. Lindholm is good defensively, he's a smart player, and he won 55.3 percent of his faceoffs. He's a capable penalty killer as well. But he's being paid top-six money and producing at a No. 3 center rate. That's not good for the Bruins, because even after giving Lindholm a huge contract, they still need a No. 1 center, and those players are very expensive.
The one positive for Lindholm moving forward is that he showed strong chemistry with Pastrnak and Geekie late in the season. Will that trio be the No. 1 line next season? It very well could be. Maybe Lindholm just needed time to adjust to Boston, new teammates and increased expectations. But if he plays like a No. 3 center again next season, that would be a huge problem for the B's.
The other marquee signing of last summer was defenseman Nikita Zadoov, who inked a six-year, $30 million deal on Day 1 of free agency. Zadorov brought more aggression to Boston's blue line, but he also took a boatload of penalties and had some defensive lapses that led to goals against. Zadorov leads the league with 50 penalties -- 12 more than any other defenseman. His 0.73 points per 60 minutes was his lowest since 2021.
In fairness to Zadorov, he played more minutes than expected due to all the injuries on the blue line. He's not a top-pairing defenseman, but he was in that role for a good portion of the season with Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy out of the lineup.
Zadorov's contract isn't an albatross, especially with the salary cap poised to rise in the next few years, but he definitely fell short of expectations in Year 1.
Injuries
Every team deals with injuries. They are part of the game. But the Bruins really missed some key players who spent a significant chunk of the season out of the lineup due to injuries.
Hampus Lindholm is a legit top-four defenseman who is capable of driving offense and defending the opponent's top forwards for 20-plus minutes per night. He also makes a meaningful contribution to both special teams units. He was playing really well until he suffered a knee injury against the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 12. Lindholm eventually needed surgery and didn't play again for the Bruins.
His absence was a huge blow to the blue line.
Making matters worse was McAvoy's injury. The former BU star is Boston's best defenseman and one of the top 15 players at his position. He suffered an upper body injury playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations tournament in February and never returned to Boston's lineup.
The Bruins could have still missed the playoffs even if Lindholm and McAvoy didn't miss a lot of time with injuries, but they would have had a much better chance to secure a berth. Losing your two-best defensemen for a lot of the season is a massive setback for any team and one that's extremely difficult to overcome.