It hasn’t really been a feature of the Boston Bruins, under Don Sweeney, that there has been long term continuity on the fourth line.
Usually, it’s players shuttling in on shorter-term deals that either don’t end up creating an NHL role for themselves, or price themselves out of sticking around once they reach free agency if they’ve performed their job well. But it seems that is beginning to change with the Bruins bringing in Jakub Lauko for an energy spark at last trade deadline and signing free agent center Sean Kuraly to a two-year contract with a $1.85 million salary cap hit for the next couple of years.
“Boston, I’ve always had soft sport for the city, the organization, the team,” said Kuraly, who teamed with guys like Noel Acciari, Joakim Nordstrom and Chris Wagner during his best days with the Bruins. “When we heard from them, it was definitely a spot where I could see myself and wanted to end up. I think conversations through my agent and through Sweens and from the organization were about wanting guys that were gonna compete and be there every day and practice hard and do all that sort of stuff.
“With a lot of opportunity and getting back to some of the things that the Bruins have done in past years to be successful. And joining some of the awesome pieces that are already on the team, it was a pretty easy sell for me. Was really excited to get that phone call.”
The 32-year-old Kuraly certainly isn’t being brought in for offensive firepower or to drop the gloves, but instead is being counted on to fill a veteran leadership role while supporting the bottom-6 with solid, consistent two-way play with occasional offense. Kuraly averaged 10 goals and 21 points per season in his four years with the Columbus Blue Jackets while living out another dream playing for his hometown team but understands what the bigger picture assignment is returning to the Black and Gold.
“Being in Boston before, I was lucky enough to be around a few of those Hall of Famers that just by chance I was in that locker room and got to learn from them as a young player in this league - Bergeron, Chara, Krejci, and David Backes, and Marchy and that whole crew,” said Kuraly, who played 270 games for the Bruins from 2016-2021 while serving a very similar role to what he’s expected to do with this current group. “Just to be able to be around them, I realized how lucky I am and how lucky I was. Now, if you can be some sort of help to the next wave, that’s what you’d like to do.”
After leaving the Bruins to skate with the Blue Jackets, Kuraly likened the Boston Bruins to “a machine” that just kept going with different pieces added and removed each season, but that machine obviously broke down last year after some of the key cogs had been removed entirely. Now he returns as one of the caretakers for the Black and Gold that can help reinvent the team culture with knowledge of past success and will be able to support young leaders David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy in their first attempt to lead by themselves.
“Sean was really excited today to be coming back,” said Don Sweeney after announcing the signing of Kuraly on Tuesday afternoon. “He knows what we’re trying to do. He’s been here and grown up as a player in the National Hockey League, cut his teeth under that [past Bruins] leadership. He’s now in that leadership category. He knows a lot of these guys. It’s plug and play for him too.
“There’s an energy piece of it, there’s a penalty killing, stability aspect with Sean. He can play a little bit up and down, both left wing and center. He’s good on draws. He’s also a guy that takes a lot of pride in professionalism on and off the ice. We had great knowledge of him and I think [his signing] aligns pretty well for us.”
Perhaps more importantly, Kuraly will also be an important insurance policy if Mark Kastelic has further difficulties with last season’s concussion issues, or if 21-year-old Fraser Minten is unable to win an NHL job directly out of training camp. Some Bruins fans will take issue with a slew of veteran bottom-6 types that were signed to contracts with Michael Eyssimont, Tanner Jeannot, Marat Khusnutdinov and Kuraly joining Kastelic and Johnny Beecher as third and fourth line options, but the bottom line is that any aspiring AHL type should have to beat out an established NHL veteran for a job in Boston.
And the Bruins absolutely needed a stronger veteran leadership presence inside the dressing room last season, and Kuraly is in a very unique position to be that guy for a Bruins team looking to make things much more stable this coming season.
ONE TIMERS
• One under-the-radar player that impressed at Bruins development camp this past week was Vashek Blanar, a 6-foot-4, 193-pound defenseman taken with the 100th overall pick in the fourth round. Some hair trigger reactions questioned the pick when he didn’t immediately pop up in a Google search after being drafted, but it was because he had recently changed his last name to Vashek Richards while the Czech-born D-man had been playing in the Swedish junior leagues over the last couple of years.
“It’s just a testament to the scouts traveling anywhere and everywhere,” said Sweeney after the NHL Draft last weekend. “You’re just trying to make sure. You might find a young man, in this case, that’s pretty raw. He’s in a bit of an underdeveloped frame right now. [He’s a] great skater [and] wants to compete.
“He’s probably trying to do too much at times. I’ve used this analogy before, but there’s a piece of clay that you want to get a hold of and see if you can start to mold and stretch and understand the attributes he has that are really attractive.”
Whatever the case, Blanar/Richards put on a show of his offensive skill at development camp that was impressive for a blue liner.
Did some video at dev camp, and this scoring chance by Vashek Blanar was awesome. His story coming into camp is really cool. Bruins 4th rounder pic.twitter.com/t2GVMzF748
— Robert Chalmers (@IvanIvanlvan) July 3, 2025
“I feel like I’m a two-way defenseman who plays pretty offensively,” said Blanar. “I started playing physical the past few months.”
Even better, he is apparently a lifelong Bruins fan whose favorite player growing up was Milan Lucic. Blanar was born in Colorado, but grew up in his native Czech Republic and is looking forward to greater opportunities to show what he can do as a late-blooming puck-moving defenseman with skill.
• Sad weekend for Boston Bruins fans as we all learned of the passing of 61-year-old Lyndon Byers after an unfortunate decline in health in recent years. Byers was a fan favorite during his playing days because of the brawler role that he exuberantly filled on the ice, and off the ice for his bombastic, fun-loving personality that became something of a larger-than-life persona. Byers parlayed his post-playing career days into a longtime on-air role on the Hill Man Morning Show on WAAF and was clearly a figure that touched so many lives, based on the social media testaments after news of his passing had circulated.
A statement on the passing of former Bruin Lyndon Byers. pic.twitter.com/aqit3sKKPG
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) July 5, 2025
Heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and former teammates as “LB” will be greatly missed by everybody that knew him and loved him.