The Bruins farm system has been slowly turning over in a big way the last couple of years, and this summer has been one of those seminal periods with a great deal of change coming for next season and beyond.
The most obvious changes in Providence were head coach Ryan Mougenel leaving for an assistant coaching spot with the Vancouver Canucks and being replaced by former P-Bruins captain Trent Whitfield. And longtime P-Bruins forwards Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov both exiting the organization for fresh starts with the Colorado Avalanche after never quite making it to Boston.
It also extends to veteran P-Bruins forwards like Riley Tufte and Patrick Brown exiting Providence in what should lead to a much younger AHL group this season, with players like Riley Duran, Michael Callahan, Dans Locmelis, Ivan Ivan and Simon Zajicek, among others, leading the way with the P-Bruins.
But this weekend was also a big turnover in another way as a whopping three Bruins draft picks will not be signed by the organization with Oskar Jelvik (fifth round pick in 2021), Mason Langenbrunner (fifth round pick in 2020) and goalie Phillip Svedeback (fourth round pick in 2021) and became free agents at the Aug. 15 deadline for drafted players coming out of the college ranks. Combining that with the trade of the rights to Andre Gasseau (seventh round pick in 2021) when it was clear he wasn’t going to sign with the Bruins as well, and it’s a clear admission that it was time to move on from an entire Bruins organizational chapter.
“You're watching Providence play [this past season] and identifying the players that may be able to make the jump to help us next year. I think the job that our player development guys did with James [Hagens] this year in the amount of time they spent at Boston College to get him ready, and to make the jump [to the NHL] is important," said Don Sweeney. There are opportunities there that we need to continue to leverage and take advantage of across the board in every one of our players. But Marco [Sturm] had an eye towards that.
“He had patience of what was going on [when he coached in the AHL] with players that were going to graduate and go through ebbs and flows in terms of where their own [game was]… it's not a linear path for any player. I think he's got a really good eye for when a player is able to grasp what he's trying to do systematically and allow him to make some mistakes. But hopefully the progression is there. That's the merging part that we're all trying to do [at the NHL level]. And our guys are out communicating with our next prospects and the guys that we're hopefully going to implement into our lineups down the future, and they've done a really good job.”
The good news is that the new wave of young Bruins prospects and young pros at the AHL level feel like they hold a brighter future, and it starts with Matt Poitras, Frederic Brunet and Michael DiPietro pushing into the NHL ranks this season. The B’s are hoping it’s a new day for their draft-and-development system that’s been maligned in the past, but feels like it’s a turning point this coming season where young players will begin making more impact that Bruins management’s future is clearly tied into as well.
But this summer was the last bit of cleaning up, and moving on from past failures, with a new, hopeful day ahead.
ONE TIMERS
*One has to wonder how much this past spring’s IIHF World Championships factored into the Bruins trading for New York Rangers defenseman Will Borgen last month while they were looking to fortify the right side of their blue line.
Borgen played on Team USA with Mason Lohrei, Connor Clifton, Alex Steeves and Hagens on a squad with a big-time Bruins flavor, and clearly the team came away with good recommendations on the stay-at-home defensemen.
“[Clifton] is an unbelievable guy. Will Borgen, too,” said Steeves of his experience playing with them in Europe. “Two really high-character guys who play the game the right way, play hard. I think they’re going to help us out on defense. Extremely excited to work with them every day and get to know them better.”
*Got to say it’s really good to have Connor Clifton back in the Black and Gold fold for the next few seasons. Clifton is obviously a solid defenseman and a tenacious competitor that will get in the face of the biggest and toughest foes, but he’s also one of those guys that is always very popular in the dressing room because of his good nature and carefree personality.
Cliffy on the mic for some “Bruins Trivia” 🤓🎤 pic.twitter.com/zwwspy8idK
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) August 11, 2026
*Congrats to the Boston Bruins on the extremely successful Back to School program that entered its 15th year of existence this past week with B’s players Alex Steeves and Tanner Jeannot representing the club. TD Garden, TD Bank, the Salvation Army Massachusetts Division, Boston Public Schools, and the City of Boston all got together for the event, with the Bruins skaters handing out supplies-filled backpacks to school-aged Boston kids and spending time playing floor hockey with them.
“To see TD and the Bruins making an effort to help enrich education for all these children – I think it’s amazing,” Steeves said. “We all are so lucky to do this for a living and have fans who come and spend their [hard-earned] money to support us…It is cool to see that money then means something; to go back into programs and initiatives like this to just make the lives better for a lot of these kids who deserve it.”
Over the 15 years of the event, more than 56,000 backpacks and more than $600,000 in donations have been given out to support students and their families, and TD Garden presented a $15,000 check to the Boston Public Schools Music and Art program to keep those vibrant, important school programs going.
“We also have some doctors upstairs. We have eye doctors, a dentist – people get checkups before they go to school, too, which is also important in getting ready health-wise for the school year,” said Bruins CEO and alternate governor Charlie Jacobs. “This is about sharing the Garden as a resource for the community.”
*That’s it for this week, we’ll see you at the rink!