It feels like the B’s back-end picture is pretty well-established at this point, provided Hampus Lindholm has returned to full health this offseason and should provide a major overall team strength for a hockey club desperately seeking a rebound season.
Charlie McAvoy and Lindholm are at the top of the depth charts, of course, and Nikita Zadorov and Henri Jokiharju should round out the top-4 with Andrew Peeke and Mason Lohrei forming a young, talented bottom pairing with tons of upside. There’s good depth too, with Michael Callahan and 25-year-old Haverhill native Jordan Harris among those vying for the seventh defenseman spot on a team where there may not be too much extra opportunity if everybody is healthy and playing well.
Another name that is going to heavily factor into that blueline mix is 25-year-old Victor Soderstrom after arriving via trade last month with the Chicago Blackhawks. Boston shipped out young D-man Ryan Mast and a 2025 seventh-round pick for Soderstrom, who never actually played a game for the Blackhawks after his rights were moved there from the Utah Hockey Club at the NHL trade deadline. Soderstrom was an intriguing “get” as a former 2019 first round pick that played in 53 career NHL games during his time in the Arizona Coyotes organization, bouncing between the AHL and NHL.
The new Bruins jerseys are here and they are crisssspy clean 🧼
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) June 25, 2025
📸: @NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/L9nSUHm8GZ
It was that lack of opportunity with the Coyotes that actually spurred Soderstrom to bolt North America and return to his native Brynas IF in Sweden last season, where he posted nine goals and 37 points in 48 games for a loaded Swedish Elite League team that included longtime NHL forward Jakob Silverberg.
Going back to Sweden and opting not to re-sign with his NHL club wasn’t an easy decision for Soderstrom, but it ended up being the right one in terms of finding a better opportunity.
It was there that Soderstrom said he rediscovered his “joy for playing hockey” and was freed to play his puck-moving, free-skating game after dwelling too much on proving himself defensively with Arizona. Certainly the smooth skating and the good puck-handling skills are intact, even if the 5-foot-11, 184-pound frame is never going to make him a frontline D-man battling around the net in the defensive zone.
“The coaches [in Sweden] let me play the way that I wanted to and [skate] a lot with the puck making plays all over the ice,” said Soderstrom to Boston Sports Journal during a chat this week. “Obviously I got to play a lot of minutes, which gets your confidence going up. I was playing with good players on a good team, closed down other teams defensively and was moving the puck up the ice well and creating chances. I think that’s why I did the best this year and had a successful year.
“In Arizona, it felt like they were focusing so much on my defensive game that it was almost…I was focusing on that too much myself because I wanted to prove that I could play defensively. I felt like over the years there I didn’t feel like I played my game, which I did this year [in Sweden]. Part of that is obviously my own fault, but there was a lot of talk from them to me that ‘you’ve got to be playing this way defensively’ I think this year [in Sweden] I think I really took a big step in my game and I’m going to try to translate that back to the North American game.”
It's a big leap to expect the same kind of performance in the NHL as the Swedish Leagues, of course, and the likelihood is that Soderstrom would at least start the season in Providence barring any injuries in NHL training camp. But the high ceiling potential-wise is there and Soderstrom is exactly the kind of low-cost/high-ceiling player that the Bruins have really done well with during Don Sweeney’s tenure as manager.
The season in Sweden came after Soderstrom had also put together a strong AHL campaign in Tucson with nine goals and 32 points in 62 games during the 2023-24 season prior to leaving for Europe. Strong campaigns in back-to-back seasons has put Soderstrom in an excited frame of mind headed into his first training camp with the Bruins, where he’s looking to win an NHL job and finally get the chance to establish himself that never seemed to fully materialize during a frustrating few years with the Coyotes organization.
“It’s obviously very exciting. I’m coming off a great year here back in Sweden, where I’ve got some good confidence coming over there,” said Soderstrom to the Boston Sports Journal this week. “I’m trying to get bigger, stronger and faster and better here during the summer, come over [to Boston] in good shape and take a spot on the [NHL] roster. That’s my goal.
“For me what I have to show is that I can play defensively, win puck battles and then transition the game to the offensive zone. Basically, offensively is where my game is the strongest. So if I can do that and move the puck up the ice, I’ve got a good chance.”
It’s not going to be easy for Soderstrom entering a situation with six established defensemen at the NHL level in Boston, but then again this Bruins team is coming off a poor season where the defense was porous and mistake-prone with McAvoy and Lindholm on the shelf. So there should be job opportunities if a player starts realizing the potential that made him the 11th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, and there remains a possibility that the Bruins might have picked up another diamond in the rough from another organization.
ONE TIMERS
• So how do we feel about the retro Bruins jerseys for this upcoming season now that the frenetic pace of the hockey news has died down a little bit?
The new Bruins jerseys are here and they are crisssspy clean 🧼
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) June 25, 2025
📸: @NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/L9nSUHm8GZ
It’s not a massive departure from what the Bruins have worn in the past, but more like a straight-up callback to the sweaters that the Big Bad Bruins wore during my youth in the 1980’s and early 1990’s when Cam Neely and Don Sweeney both played for the Black and Gold. The only thing missing is the iconic “Meth Bear” patch as he’s known by Bruins fans, which is nowhere to be seen as the jerseys have a pretty clean look without a lot going on aside from the basics in terms of logos and patches.