{"id":53728,"date":"2025-07-10T09:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53728\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:14:08","slug":"bruins-looking-ahead-to-2026-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53728\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins Looking Ahead to 2026 Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Bruins have kept a low profile during this year\u2019s free-agent frenzy, don\u2019t expect the same laid-back approach next year. Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman stated on the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast<\/a> that he believes the Bruins are strategically saving cap space to make a big splash in free agency next offseason.<\/p>\n

The Bruins have made a few moves so far this summer, including a trade for veteran<\/a> Viktor Arvidsson<\/a> <\/strong>and signing winger\u00a0Tanner Jeannot<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>to a five-year deal<\/a> worth $3.4MM per season. But as the team moves on from the Zdeno Chara<\/strong><\/a>\/Patrice Bergeron<\/strong><\/a>\/Brad Marchand<\/strong><\/a> era, they\u2019ll aim to be strategic about adding pieces to a roster anchored by building blocks like David Pastrnak<\/strong><\/a> and Charlie McAvoy<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf some of these guys who are supposed to be free agents next year (reach free agency), whether they get one or not, I think Boston wants to have the opportunity to take a shot at one of those guys,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cSo, if you\u2019ll notice, they didn\u2019t really do much to hamstring themselves in the future. They got Arvidsson on a one-year deal. Traded for him, gave up a late-round pick, one-year deal. Aside from Jeannot, they didn\u2019t take any massive swings.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many were puzzled by the contract given to Jeannot, Friedman pointed out how competitive the market was for the physical forward. Though a five-year deal north of $3MM per year is steep for a player coming off a 13-point season, the 27-year-old has produced four 200-plus hit seasons and could take on the enforcer role currently filled by key players like defenseman Nikita Zadorov<\/strong><\/a>. Jeannot also fits the mold of the type of players GM Don Sweeney noted he\u2019d like to bring in to make the Bruins harder to play against.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s a five-year deal. But the number isn\u2019t going to hurt you. Another thing I heard is that at least 10 teams were after him. I heard the competition for Jeannot was fierce. The Rangers were in it. I heard Ottawa was in it. He fit with Toronto and what Toronto likes. And there\u2019s just not a lot of guys like him around anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The biggest addition the Bruins made this offseason, Friedman noted, was selecting James Hagens<\/strong><\/a> with the seventh overall pick. While many believed at this time last year that Hagens was destined to be the first overall pick in this year\u2019s draft, he slipped to seventh after producing less than expected in the NCAA. Still, Hagens game may be more NHL-ready than any of his peers in this draft class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Bruins have kept a low profile during this year\u2019s free-agent frenzy, don\u2019t expect the same laid-back…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[4245,3103,16070,293,62,2080,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-53728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-2025-free-agency","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-james-hagens","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tanner-jeannot","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114828179136128247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}