The Bruins are going to have new faces in a lot of different areas of the team this coming season, and that will extend to special teams’ units that struggled mightily for the Black and Gold this past year.
Viktor Arvidsson will be a new face on the B’s power play, patrolling the net front area and looking to improve a man advantage that will also have a new architect in assistant coach Steve Spott. But the penalty kill is an area where there is going to be significant changes for the Bruins coming off a season where they finished 24th (76.3 percent success rate) in the NHL after a long, continued string of success killing off power plays over the years.
One of the underrated parts of Brad Marchand’s departure from the B’s is missing him on the penalty kill, where his dangerousness and experience made him a massive part of the unit’s longtime success.
Similarly, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic were significant parts of the B’s penalty kill efforts as well and are no longer around to shoulder that burden. The roster turnover will certainly cause a big workload for incumbent PK members like Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha, but the plan for the Bruins is also to incorporate some of the incoming B’s forwards like Mikey Eyssimont, Tanner Jeannot and Sean Kuraly into the penalty kill mix as well.
“We’re probably going to have to build up and give a little bit of trust into these [new] guys with their penalty killing at a little more of a consistent level,” admitted Don Sweeney while discussing the free agent signings back on July 1. “That’s an area that we are going to tease out of Mikey [Eyssimont] and probably Tanner [Jeannot] as well as somebody that hasn’t done that as much in the past…so we can spread it around. Obviously, we lost some key guys in that regard and we also can’t keep rolling over Lindy and [Pavel Zacha], the same guys especially when they’re playing elevated roles as well. So we are going to spread it around.”
From a hustle, shot-blocking and grit perspective, the ingredients are all there for a successful PK group, even if they are not going to be quite as likely to turn momentum-switching shorthanded moments (Bruins all-time franchise leader with 36 career shorthanded scores) like when No. 63 was around.
The good news in all of this is that the goaltender is typically any team’s best penalty killer, and that will fall under the purview of a player in Jeremy Swayman that the Bruins are banking on bouncing back in a big way. And directly in front of the net the Bruins will have a strong returning defense corps in Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, Henri Jokiharju, Andrew Peeke and Mason Lohrei, even if they are going to miss a large, stabilizing PK presence in Brandon Carlo after his exit to Toronto as well.
And the bottom line is that the same old penalty kill strategies and personnel didn’t work for the Bruins last season, so perhaps the new blood on the PK units will draw out a better special teams result this coming season for a place that’s traditionally been a strength for Boston.
ONE TIMERS
• One player that’s got a ton to prove next season is 24-year-old Johnny Beecher, coming off scoring just three goals and 11 points in 78 games while playing through a hand injury for parts of the season.
Some wondered if Beecher would even be back this season after struggling so much offensively during a season where he had separate stretches of 39 games and 32 games without a goal, and really wasn’t effective after a great stretch to start the season on a fourth line with Kastelic and Cole Koepke that had some really good moments early in the year. Beecher can probably thank the initial first round pick investment in him returning for another season in Black and Gold, and his powerful skating and excellent faceoff acumen always gives him a couple of things that can be positives.
But Beecher knows there’s a lot more he needs to start bringing to the table consistently if he wants to remain in Boston, an obvious situation given the contract he signed to stay with the organization.
“At the end of the day, it’s a go-out-and-earn-it deal,” said Beecher to the Boston Globe when asked about the one-year, $900,000 deal he signed this offseason when fellow bottom-6 hopefuls like Sean Kuraly, Mark Kastelic, Mikey Eyssimont, Marat Khusnutdinov and Tanner Jeannot are all on multi-year contracts at this point. “I’ve got a season in front of me, I’ve got to go and prove that I belong, not only in the NHL but on the Boston Bruins. I’m really excited for it, it’s a fresh start.”
• Speaking of that B’s fourth line that really sprinted out of the starting gate, Cole Koepke did not remain with the Bruins and instead signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets after scoring 11 goals in his first full NHL season playing 73 games for the Black and Gold. His good size, impressive straight-ahead speed and willingness to play a tenacious energy role will be missed in Boston, but he was replaced by a number of Bruins players being brought into the fold that perhaps play that fourth line role a little more naturally in terms of physicality and dragging teammates into the fight.
“With Boston, it was my first time in the NHL for the entire year, and I just felt that my game really came together as a whole,” said Koepke. “I put together what I’ve learned [during my career] and just tried to get better over the course of time. I feel good about where I’m at and I’m constantly trying to get better. I’m excited to bring what I can to help the team in Winnipeg.”
Koepke joins former University of Minnesota-Duluth teammate Dylan Samberg on a Jets team that’s coming off a President's Trophy season in the Western Conference.
• For anybody with young children looking to try out hockey for the first time, we can highly recommend the Bruins Academy “Learn to Play” program that just opened up registration for the fall. The program, sponsored by the Boston Bruins and Pure Hockey, outfits kids in brand, new equipment and sends them to four Learn to Play practice sessions all around rinks in Massachusetts where special guests and expert instructors are on the ice to show the kids the ropes. And it’s all for a price that wouldn’t even pay for the equipment at Pure Hockey if you were to do it on your own.
🏒⭐ Registration is now open for Fall 2025 Learn to Play program presented by @PureHockey!
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) August 13, 2025
The program gives aspiring youth hockey players ages 5-9 the opportunity to develop their skills with a full set of equipment, personalized professional fitting, and on-ice instruction… pic.twitter.com/wFxKuuQb72