Boston Bruins: 2 Reasons to Be Excited for 2024-25

The Boston Bruins’ 2023-24 season ended this past weekend after a Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers. While disappointing, the second round exit may not have come as a surprise to many of their fans. For most of the season, the Bruins simply did not look like a team capable of winning a Stanley Cup. That said, the Boston faithful should be hopeful that their team will be better next season than they were this season. Here are a few reasons why.

Cap Space

The Bruins were in a financial jam this season. They were stuck paying out bonuses to top six centers David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron from 2022-23, leading to an overage of $4.5 million, essentially decreasing their effective salary cap by that amount. As a result, they ended up only having enough space for depth pieces, signing Parker Wotherspoon, Kevin Shattenkirk, James van Riemsdyk, and Morgan Geekie, and bringing in Danton Heinen on a professional tryout (PTO). All of these players cost the team $2 million or less. They find themselves in a much better position in the 2024 offseason.

The Bruins are set to enter the offseason with $22.5 million in cap space, and that number could go up if they were to choose to trade Linus Ullmark and his $5 million salary. Of the players who started Game 6 against the Panthers, Jake DeBrusk, bottom-six forwards Heinen and van Riemsdyk, and star netminder Jeremy Swayman are the only players set to become free agents (with Swayman being a restricted free agent). Re-signing Swayman will be the Bruins’ top priority this offseason and should receive somewhere in the ballpark of $7 million annually. That will leave the Bruins with plenty left over to target multiple players who will bolster their forward group and help them improve offensively.

Bruins’ Exciting Depth Play

The Bruins had several bottom-six forwards emerge as unexpected contributors in 2023-24, none more surprising than Justin Brazeau. The 26-year-old rookie was called up in the second half of the campaign from Providence, and he made an immediate impact playing in Boston. In his 19 games, the late bloomer scored five goals, setting a 22-goal pace over the course of an 82-game season. After a shoulder injury sidelined him ahead of the playoffs, he returned and made an impact there as well, scoring a beautiful goal in the team’s first game of the second round.