The Bruins were looking to fortify their back-end situation with the July 1 opening of NHL free agency, and they technically did that by bringing in three NHL D-men for next season.
Two of the faces are very familiar, obviously, with Jordan Harris coming back into the fold on a one-year contract for the NHL minimum of $850,000, and old friend Connor Clifton re-signing with the Bruins on a two-year contract for $2.25 million per season to give the Bruins some versatility and ruggedness at the bottom of their defensemen lineup. The new guy is former Rangers, Kraken and Sabres defenseman Will Borgen, who comes to Boston from the New York Rangers in a deal that sent Boston’s 2027 second-round pick and a conditional 2028 third-round pick to the Blueshirts in exchange for the veteran 29-year-old blueliner.
#NHLBruins defensemen AAVs as of 7/2:
— Marcussi (@Marcussi_MA) July 2, 2026
$9.5M — Charlie McAvoy
$6.5M — Hampus Lindholm
$5M — Nikita Zadorov
$4.1M — Will Borgen
$3.2M — Mason Lohrei
$3M — Henri Jokiharju
$2.25M — Connor Clifton
$887.5K — Jonathan Aspirot
$875K — Frederic Brunet
$850K — Jordan Harris
Borgen is signed for four years at $4.1 million per season, so the Bruins have brought in a piece that they’re committing to for the long term that should fit in with Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov as a top 6 guy on the right side. The 29-year-old is coming off a season where he had five goals and 15 points in 75 games while averaging a shade over 18 minutes of ice time per game and is a solid stay-at-home guy who will be a plus on Boston’s penalty kill moving forward.
Borgen’s best NHL season was a 25-point campaign for the Kraken a couple of seasons ago, but he’s much more of a guy who will anchor things defensively rather than the puck-moving wizard that Boston has seemingly needed over the last couple of seasons. The Bruins seemed to be in on the Darnell Nurse sweepstakes before he was traded to the San Jose Sharks, but it seems very likely that the Black and Gold were not willing to do the deal without Edmonton picking up some of the money on his massive contract.
Boston also had interest in free agent D-man John Carlson, but he ended up signing a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning after the Bolts moved Nick Paul in a trade to clear the cap space to sign the productive 36-year-old defenseman.
Furthermore, Jacob Trouba signed a big-money four-year contract with the San Jose Sharks, as well, that was bigger money and term than Boston was likely to want to give out to that kind of player at 32 years old. So the Bruins didn’t knock it out of the park with what they did on July 1 if we’re being totally honest, but they also improved their back-end situation by trading off departing UFA Andrew Peeke for Clifton and Borgen for added high-quality depth.
The gamble here is that Borgen is a little more attuned to potential top 4 responsibilities than either Peeke, Mason Lohrei, Henri Jokiharju or Jonathan Aspirot were last season while they gamely tried to get the job done for Boston. Those other players can sort things out on the bottom pairing with Harris and youngster Frederic Brunet as he looks to bust into the NHL picture next season as well.
“Welcoming Jordan Harris back and Connor Clifton back but Will [Borgen] addresses some of the areas that we lose in Andrew Peeke, who was a really good contributor to our club too. We wish him well, as well as Arvi [Viktor Arvidsson] and his family,” said Sweeney. “Will's got length, he skates well, he competes, he closes in the D zone. Penalty killing is an area where we want to make sure we continue to take maybe a little load off of Charlie [McAvoy] in some of those situations as a primary guy, so we can spread that around a little bit.
“We just like his overall experience. We like the size of the player and his overall attributes that he's going to come in and complement our group.”
So the July 1 moves probably make the Bruins better next season, but it remains to be seen whether it’s demonstrably better, given how Borgen plays and the impactful way Peterka can contribute to a top 6 group alongside younger skaters like James Hagens and Matt Poitras.
Clearly, the Bruins backed off the Arvidsson contract talks once they landed Peterka, and the Swedish second-liner signed a two-year, $10-million contract with the Detroit Red Wings that had been discussed with the Black and Gold prior to the NHL Draft.
“We didn't have an agreement prior to [the draft] and then once we made the JJ [Peterka] trade, it sort of changed, you know, where we were, might be focusing on and including, opportunity from some of the younger players, we felt we wanted to make sure we provided,” said Sweeney. “At the end of the day, we felt comfortable where our position was prior to, and then, you know, JJ sort of changed it around a little bit, so we could focus on the back end.”
Credit the Bruins for also embracing the future between the pipes as they shipped Joonas Korpisalo to the Rangers to free up that salary cap space and open up the backup job to Michael DiPietro after back-to-back seasons as the AHL goaltender of the year in Providence.
“We just feel that Michael has earned this opportunity,” said Sweeney. “It's just a real good opportunity for him now to come in and take the last two years in particular and apply it to the National Hockey League.”
As so often happens with the Bruins, a lot of the chatter prior to July 1 was about Carlson, Nurse, Trouba and Vinny Trocheck, and none of those moves ended up being what the B’s pulled off once the market opened. It remains to be seen if that ends up being a good thing or a bad thing for the Black and Gold over the long term, but there is little denying that they’ve got an upgraded roster, more than $5 million in additional salary cap space to play with next season and they held onto a majority of their future draft picks including a Maple Leafs first rounder that could be pretty good a couple of years down the road.
“A lot of teams have been [trying to add speed and skill] and figuring out how they're going to change the dynamics of their group. We were trying to, in conversations we were having, be specific in some of those areas…but again, we're[also] looking at internal growth as well, whether that's through James [Hagens], whether that's through Rikes [Lukas Reichel] obviously [JJ] Peterka comes in and adds a different dimension to our group as well, and how that's going to fit,” said Sweeney. “We have to expect a little bit of everything in that regard. But we have depth to cover us, if guys aren't ready or guys can't [win a job at the NHL level], then we'll be fine.”
All in all, a pretty good day for the Bruins even if there wasn’t the sexy big move that the fans are always on the lookout for during the July 1 free agent frenzy.