How Bruins’ Final Week Of Season Inspires Hope For Future

There’s no way to slice it and certainly, no way to spin a positive season-long narrative for the Bruins. The 2024-25 season has been one of the most difficult in recent franchise history.

Boston has one more game to play before turning to a pivotal offseason. We’ve known for a while that the Black and Gold would miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season. As it stands right now, they’re poised to finish with the worst record in the Eastern Conference and currently are slotted into the No. 4 selection in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. There’s uncertainty at head coach after Jim Montgomery was fired earlier in the season and captain following the emotional trade of Brad Marchand.

Positive news has been hard to come by this season, and there’s nothing that could happen in these final games that changes any of the big-picture stuff. But when you’re down this bad, you do look for the slightest glimmers of hope, especially entering the offseason, as you try to build on what you have.

The good news for the Bruins in that sense is they do have plenty with which they can build. Even with Marchand’s departure, the core is still strong. David Pastrnak has solidified himself as an annual Hart Trophy contender. Before getting injured, Charlie McAvoy reminded the hockey world of what he can do as a No. 1 defenseman. Jeremy Swayman has steadied himself after a contract squabble put him behind the 8-ball to open the season. The optimist’s optimists will also look at improvements for Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov and believe there’s not only room for growth moving forward but it’s imminent.

And in an otherwise lost week-plus leading into the finale, there were other reasons for hope:

Fabian Lysell finally breaks through
It has certainly been a mixed bag for the 22-year-old, who was a minus-3 in a loss to Buffalo last week and a minus-2 in a loss to the Blackhawks on Thursday. But you take the bad with the good for an inexperienced rookie, and Lysell did provide some good. In a rout of the playoff-bound Devils last week, he recorded his first career assist. On Sunday, he finally found the back of the net with his first career goal. The signs of progression are there, too. The Sweden native is aggressive and not afraid to shoot the puck, as evidenced by six shot attempts in just under 12 minutes Sunday. In 10 games since being called up, he’s put at least three shots on net three times. Lysell also was tagged with just two takeaways in those games. It’s not perfect, but the Bruins need to know if he can play at the highest level, and he’s at least getting that chance and showing signs of being able to grow.

Joonas Korpisalo looks like a keeper
The Bruins’ decision to acquire Korpisalo was a bit of a head-scratcher. Because of that, he unfairly gets compared to Linus Ullmark, but in a vacuum, he was good in his first season in Boston. Goals-against average isn’t a perfect stat, but his 2.90 mark after Sunday — his sixth start allowing a goal or less — would be a significant improvement on the 3.06 career mark coming into the season. The save percentage dipped, but he looks much closer to the confident goalie we saw in the early Columbus years as opposed to the two-ish seasons when fell off. Korpisalo is a perfectly fine backup who could be even better assuming Swayman — with a full, functioning offseason — comes back strong in 2025-26.

The Baby B’s look … good
Can you bet on the AHL? Because if you can, a sprinkle on Providence to win the Calder Cup might be worthwhile. The P-Bruins are in the playoffs, and they should get even better once the NHL season ends, and some of the current call-ups go back down and provide reinforcements. But that’s not what’s important when you’re talking about your AHL team. The question is always the same: Are the young players progressing? Based on the stats, the answer is yes. Georgii Merkulov is basically a point-per-game player, as is Matthew Poitras. And while they do at some point need to do that at the NHL level, it’s always worth reminding everyone those guys are 24 and 21, respectively. The Bruins also have to love what they’ve seen so far from UMass standout Dans Locmelis. After signing earlier this month, he already has eight points in just four games. Getting Fraser Minten in the Brandon Carlo trade looks good so far, too, as he’s already with the big club after seven points in 10 games with Providence. Even Will Zellers, acquired in the Charlie Coyle deal, continues to contribute in the USHL where he has 7-6-13 totals in 11 games since his rights were traded, giving him 71 points in 52 games this season for the Green Bay Gamblers.

The Bruins can’t simply hope away the offseason on the likes of Lysell, Korpisalo and Merkulov or Minten going into next season. However, for a team that has some cap room this summer and some good returning talent, these sorts of on-the-margin gains can help complement the right offseason decisions.

They’ll likely get their first crack at doing that June 27 at the top of the NHL draft board.