Don Sweeney Expects Bruins To Be Strong After Free Agent Deals

The Boston Bruins made their presence known during the first day of free agency on Tuesday.

On top of signing Sean Kuraly, Jordan Harris and Tanner Jeannot, the Bruins also signed six more players. They inked forwards Michael Eyssimont, Matej Bluemel, Alex Steeves, defenseman Jonathan Aspirot and goaltender Luke Cavallin to contracts. To round out the day, Boston re-signed defenseman Riley Tufte.

Some of the newly acquired players will head to the AHL with the Providence Bruins before making their way to the NHL.

General manager Don Sweeney is confident that with the acquisitions, the Bruins will be a competitive team. He believes that the Bruins’ roster will have a new look to it compared to last season.

“We went to work on finding, as I referenced last week, that we were going to put together a competitive team with bringing some juice back (to Boston),” Sweeney told reporters on Tuesday. “That applies to elevating our current guys and them feeling reinvigorated coming off of some injuries and a very down year.”

An area where Boston needs to improve from last season is with their scoring. Sweeney is hopeful that with the new additions that the Bruins will have more of a scoring touch going forward.

“I do believe when you put the whole group together, what they’re capable of doing, we’ll score enough if we play the right way, and we’ll defend a hell a lot better, and I expect our goaltending to be significantly better,” Sweeney said.

The general manager told reporters that the Bruins need to reestablish being hard to play against, something they got away from last season.

“At times last year, even when we had our (whole) group, we were an easy out,” Sweeney said. “I just can’t stand for that. So we are going to reestablish.”

Along with the free agent signings, Boston also acquired forward Viktor Arvidsson in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers.

The Bruins will have a fresh look in the 2025-26 season, and there’s plenty of excitement to see how the new direction leads to success.