The 2026-27 NHL Regular Season kicks off in just 19 days for the Boston Bruins, when they take on the New York Rangers on the opening night of the NHL season.
Before that, training camps are set to open across the NHL next week, and with it, teams are in the process of finalizing their rosters ahead of camps breaking.
The Bruins enter with a close-to-full roster, but rumors in the last 24 hours have spiraled into a feeling of near-inevitability that today after the waiver period expires, Chris Kreider will return home to Massachusetts and sign with the Bruins.
Elliotte Friedman, the best insider for the NHL, posted a podcast Thursday morning and fanned the flames of Kreider returning to Boston.
"He wants to go back by his family East," Friedman said. "I know there's a lot of speculation about Boston. It makes a lot of sense. We'll see on Thursday. I heard there was interest in him."
Kreider, 35, posted 22 goals and 50 points in 78 games with the Anaheim Ducks last season. Kreider unexpectedly hit the UFA market after he and the Ducks agreed to a mutual contract termination on Wednesday, with reports stating Kreider wants to return home to the East Coast.
Nowhere would be more home than Boston for Kreider. With 958 career games played, a fitting 1,000 games played tribute in his home state would be an excellent touch.
The veteran forward is a native of Boxford, Massachusetts. He was picked 19th overall in the 2009 NHL Draft, and then played three seasons of college hockey with Boston College.
The two-time All Star forward then spent the first 13 years of his NHL career with the Rangers, posting 326 goals and 582 points in 883 games for the Original 6 franchise, while reaching the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, along with multiple Conference Finals appearances in 2012, 2015, 2022, and 2024.
Kreider may not be the player he once was, but he is a guaranteed 20-goal-a-year player. Kreider has never had a season since his rookie year when he didn't play to a pace of 20-goals-per-year, while only failing to reach the mark twice in that time due to injuries in 2017-18 and 2013-14.
Kreider can play on both special teams units and can be an excellent veteran leader for the younger Bruins forwards, with him feeling like a perfect fit to skate alongside Fraser Minten and serve as a direct upgrade on the role Tanner Jeannot played last year.
Jeannot could then slide down to the fourth line and revisit the chemistry he found with Sean Kuraly and Mark Kastelic.
The only potential downside of a Kreider addition is that it makes a crowded Bruins forward group even busier. It all-but-certainly would spell the end of Matthew Poitras' time in Boston, as the RFA forward remains unsigned ahead of training camp next week.
Elsewhere, it would force at least two more roster regulars from the end of last season to be cut from the roster.
James Hagens would face a tougher battle to break camp. Meanwhile, guys like Mikey Eyssimont and Alex Steeves would see another roster and lineup spot dry up before camp, creating an even tougher and more demanding camp from everyone involved.
Kreider will clear waivers at 2 p.m. on Thursday, with his next destination expected to break shortly thereafter, with the common school of logic linking him with Boston.
