So far, the offseason action of the Boston Brown Bears – Hockey Writer – Boston Brown Bears
One and a half weeks after the 2025 NHL Draft and seven days after free agency, the Boston Bruins have made some eye-opening moves for the second consecutive year. Some moves wowed the fans, while others confused them about the choices the team made.
The Bruins enter the offseason and need a few pieces on the shore, including their coaching staff, including hiring Marco Sturm as their next head coach. They also completed the job of figuring out the seventh draft in the draft after beating the top five.
The Bruins entered draft night with six draft picks, but after trading the 69th pick to the Montreal Canadiens for the 79th and 100th picks, the Bruins won the game with seven draft picks. This is Boston’s offseason so far with the rest of the league.
Rating the draft for 2025
With seven draft picks, the Bruins are ready to cause some waves throughout the NHL, whether it’s the seventh draft or their second round. However, their draft class was defined by taking James Hagens the first draft pick from Boston College (BC).
Hagens is a great player who might spend another season for the Hawks before getting a pro, a Titanic upgrade for the Boston Center. He will most likely not spend too much time in the American Hockey League (AHL) before joining the team.
Before the draft, Hagens is expected to be as low as fifth to fifth, or even highest if Matthew Schaefer ends up not being ranked No. 1 on New York Island. However, it cannot last until the brown bear is on the clock. However, Hagens fell into Boston’s knee at seven o’clock, and Hagens was a brown bear after Adam Sandler himself.
In the freshman season in BC, Hagens averaged 11 goals per game and scored 26 assists (37 points) in 37 games. By the end of his sophomore season at Chestnut Hill, Hagens will be only 19 years old, giving him a chance to return to his junior season with the Hawks. However, Eagles teammate Ryan Leonard, who started the 2024-25 season, was selected to be one spot lower than Hagens (eighth overall), and after his sophomore season, he went straight to the NHL.
Related: 2025 NHL Draft Course for Meeting Brown Bears
Other draft picks include William Moore, who was a member of the U.S. National Team Development Program last season. Moore should compete at the NHL level Once competition once competition, Moore should supplement the depth of Hagengen. Both are strong two-way centers that can score high goals; it’s just a matter of their willingness to share the hockey.
As for the rest of the draft picks, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney made great plans for the future as Liam Pettersson and Vashek Blanar drafted a defensive player. Neither of their entry-level deals are expected this season, but it may look earlier given their ability to go on the blue line and out of their area. Sweeney did what he needed to do to put the team in a good position.
Final draft level: B+
How free agency/transactions are graded (so far)
Free agents only have one week – plus a few days before the deal – Boston looks good about their handling.
The first trade that looked particularly good was locking goalkeeper Michael Dipietro. The best part isn’t even Sweeney was able to sign him as a team-friendly annual average value (AAV) contract, but it’s an NHL contract, not like the two-way contract he signed before the 2024-25 season. It effectively shows the end of his time in Providence.
Dipietro has performed well in the 2024-25 season, starting with 40 games, he has achieved a record of 26-8-5, a goal on average (GAA) of 2.05 and a percentage savings of .927 (SV%) and 4 eliminations. At just 6 feet tall, he may be one of the smaller network guys in the league, but he moved quickly from back to post and had NHL experience since his time with the Vancouver Canucks.
The Bruins also agreed to a deal with Henri Jokiharju, John Beecher and even signed a postponement of Morgan Geekie. The latter is a key move by Geekie after putting his professional season together in 2024-25 and immediately stated after the season that he wanted to stay in Boston.
In addition to Geekie signing the extension, Bruins also replaced Viktor Arvidsson, signed Tanner Jeannot (a contract of no less than five years), and Sean Kuraly, etc. While obviously not everyone will let the team through October, which may even mark the ending of some players in Boston, all signings will reassure Sturm knowing that he has been injured and has deep work to work this season.
The market is slowly closing well-intentioned players for the Brown Bears to sign or trade, so they should move forward with caution during the offseason. However, they have emitted so much splash so far that they can be happy with it and keep moving forward.
Overall free agency/trade level:
