It’s a pretty safe bet that the Boston Bruins are not going to go through another season without a captain.
After the just-concluded campaign, where Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak were essentially co-captains under first-year head coach Marco Sturm, Cam Neely indicated earlier this week that discussions are already underway for the Bruins to name one player the 28th captain in franchise history for next season and beyond.
“I think obviously we would love to name a captain, but we've had some great captains here, so one of the things that we want to do is make sure we're picking the right guy, and Marco is going to be a big part of that,” said Neely. “So having a new coach come in and implementing a new system, getting to know the players, I think it only made sense to see how the season played out, and then we're going to have plenty.
“We've already started discussions about that, for sure, and we're going to have plenty more in this offseason.”
Even if there is a captain named, the current leadership hierarchy would expect to remain in place, with McAvoy and Pastrnak essentially sharing duties as Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara did for so many years.
“When you're talking about two players that are currently captains and a big, big part of our leadership group, you're not in a position thinking you're choosing between somebody,” said Don Sweeney. “They're great people. They're great teammates. They’re great Boston Bruins, so for us, we look at the big picture and say, where's everybody in their own personal development, their own family dynamic, and who can impact us the most without impacting themselves and how they go about their daily life.
“Leadership is a collective process, and I think we proved this year that those guys took ownership of it. We grew, they grew, and now you're going to eventually get to the point where you feel comfortable that we are going to have another captain here.”
But it was pretty remarkable to see Pastrnak step up and challenge the rest of the team in the season’s last episode of “Behind the B” as cameras caught him lighting everybody up after a disastrous first period of their Game 4 blowout loss at TD Garden.
David Pastrnak lighting into his team after the 1st period in Game 4 against the Sabres. There’s a lot more that goes into being a team captain than yelling at the room when they need to hear it, but this and the Game 5 response in Buffalo was good to see pic.twitter.com/wIXw5v7e4Z
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) May 8, 2026
Clearly there are some good arguments for McAvoy to be named captain as well, and he showed extremely good growth in all areas of leadership while shouldering his share of the burden leading the team this past season. McAvoy obviously played through tremendous pain, discomfort and adversity in being the team’s nominee for the Masterton Trophy and has grown into a more comfortable, composed spokesman for the team, win, lose, or draw, and would be a choice that nobody would quibble with if the “C” ended up going his way for next season and beyond.
But it comes somewhat undeniably who the true leader of this group is when Pastrnak steps up and talks in that kind of a pivotal moment and then steps up further to score the game-winning overtime goal in Game 5 to once again show character in returning the series to Boston after an embarrassing home loss.
Clearly the Czech right winger isn’t a leader in the style of Chara and Bergeron before him, but the 29-year-old did learn from those players during his early years while displaying his own flair for leadership that was more like an Alex Ovechkin, in the mind of his head coach, who also played with the Russian winger briefly during the 2010-11 season.
“He does it his way. Definitely not like a Chara or maybe even Bergeron. That’s the way he is and the way he’s fun to be around, guys feel it,” said Sturm earlier this season when asked about Pastrnak as a leader. “He tries to stay positive, and the stuff he does on the ice, that’s on top of it.
“So that’s where everyone is like ‘Wow, he is the whole deal.’ We’re all rooting for him.”
Regardless of whichever player earns the captaincy, the more important element is the entire leadership group as players like Nikita Zadorov, Sean Kuraly, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, Hampus Lindholm, Jeremy Swayman, Tanner Jeannot and Elias Lindholm, among others, will be expected to take on their share of the leadership load as well.
But there’s a sneaking feeling that the true leaders on any hockey team worth its salt are the players who rise to the moment when the team needs it most, and time and time again in the playoffs over the last few years, it’s been Pastrnak who has been the guy at the heart of those good moments for the team.
ONE TIMERS
• Tough end for the Providence Bruins as they fell in four games to the Springfield Falcons, coming off one of their best regular seasons in franchise history. In the end, they had a hard time scoring goals and making plays against Springfield despite a tremendously talented lineup, and old friend Chris Wagner was a constant factor for the Falcons pressing the issue and setting up the game-winning overtime goal in a 1-0 Game 4 in Springfield that denied P-Bruins fans one last home playoff game.
Matt Poitras was the most effective P-Bruins player with a goal and four points in the four games, while consistently drawing penalties and setting up plays that weren’t being finished by his teammates. Frederic Brunet finished with a couple of assists in the four games for a depleted defense corps that suffered a couple of big injuries against Providence, and Michael DiPietro had a save percentage over .930 in the playoffs after posting the same during the regular season.
So similar to Boston, it wasn’t about the excellent goaltending in the playoffs, and instead, it was about the players just not getting it done in the postseason for Providence.
“It’s obviously disappointing. I’m more disappointed for the players. I know they wanted ultimately to have success, but at the end of the day we just didn’t execute,” said coach Ryan Mougenel. “Losing a couple of the guys on the back end (Christian Wolanin and Victor Soderstrom) hurt our puck-moving abilities. We just couldn’t get out of our own end. That was an issue.
“But (Springfield) played really well. They played us harder. I take responsibility. As somebody that leads the group, it’s important to understand the desperation. I just don’t know if it was there,”
It will be interesting to see how much push there will be from 22-year-old Poitras, 22-year-old Brunet and 26-year-old DiPietro for an NHL roster spot this fall, as those are the three most likely players to get long looks for a Boston roster that’s got a whopping 21 incumbent players signed to NHL deals for next season, including 13 forwards that have a deal for next season already.
One should keep a close on that as there could very well be some deals just to free up some of that logjam for roster improvements, and younger players potentially pushing through for the P-Bruins.
Another interesting thing to watch is P-Bruins head coach Ryan Mougenel, who is coming off being named the Pieri Award winner as the AHL’s Outstanding Coach of the Year. Mougenel may get some interest around the league for an NHL assistant coaching job, or be in line for any coaching changes with the NHL staff in Boston after Marco Sturm’s successful first season in Boston.
“I think [Sturm] did a remarkable job, to be honest with you,” said Neely. “It's not an easy job to be a head coach in the National Hockey League, especially in a market like ours, but he had played here, so he knew what the expectations were.
“But until you go through it, you don't really know what you're going through. And fortunately, our staff, especially Adam [Rogowin] and his group, really helped Marco along dealing with the media on a daily basis, which he hadn't really had to do that much, where he came from. But there's a lot more that goes [into] being an NHL head coach, [and] I thought he did a remarkable job this year.”
Sturm obviously succeeded in a big way and assistant coach Steve Spott had a lot of success with a revamped power play, but all of the other assistant coaches were incumbent holdovers that weren’t brought in by the former Bruins player as the team really struggled on the back end, at times, and with defensive consistency throughout the season.
• The Bruins could be losing a key member of their front office as capologist and Providence Bruins GM Evan Gold is a finalist for the Vancouver Canucks GM job after interviewing for the vacant Toronto Maple Leafs job earlier this offseason as well. Gold has been instrumental in Boston’s shrewd usage of its cap space over the last decade and would be a major loss for the Black and Gold, but it’s also been very clear over the last few seasons that it’s only a matter of time before he gets scooped up by another NHL organization.