The 2026-27 season begins Tuesday for the Boston Bruins, with a home game inside TD Garden against the New York Rangers.
As is tradition, Bruins' President Cam Neely and General Manager Don Sweeney held their annual post-training camp press conference and answered all questions on the state of the Bruins.
The biggest takeaway from the presser by far has to be the heavy faith Sweeney is placing into the youth he's built over recent years through drafts and trades.
"Some of the younger players, as we hoped, would push our older players," Sweeney said. "People will see our roster this afternoon and be excited about the direction of our hockey club. We want to maintain the competitiveness that we built and reestablished last year with our group overall, but we certainly have to have an eye towards improving the overall skill and speed, and the attack mentality that is required to play in different environments throughout the 84-game schedule."
Michael DiPietro, James Hagens, Frederic Brunet, and Matthew Poitras (IR) will all be on Boston's roster to start the year. Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov are still big pieces, too.
The new guys stole the headlines.
“Michael's been biding his time in the American Hockey League," Sweeney said Monday. "He easily could have been picked up last year waiver-wise, and we're fortunate that he wasn't, and now he's part of our group. He’s competitive, humble, appreciative of opportunity, but to he's not going to back off.”
“The other young guys," Sweeney continued. "Whether James or Freddie, and I talk about Matty Poitras, Fraser's still young, Khusnutdinov is still young — we're excited about that band of players. They're mixing with our even more established guys to the internal growth that they're going to be capable of and pushing.”
Sweeney all-but confirmed that Poitras was on the road, if not already earned his spot on the roster before suffering his camp-ending lower-body injury.
Sweeney said there's no timeline for a Poitras return, and that he's only just gotten back on the ice recently.
When Poitras returns, it will force the Bruins into one more roster move, as they will then have 24 skaters. Likely, a defenseman will be waived at that point to go to the more traditional 14-7-2 format teams like to have throughout a season.
Sweeney also emphasized repeatedly the importance of Boston's depth, and how over an 84-game season, they're going to need it.
"We're not going to apologize for the depth of our hockey club."
Later, Sweeney emphasized the importance of Alex Steeves to the Bruins.
"It's a competitive industry," Sweeney said. "You have to maintain that roster spot in the case of both players [Steeves and Henri Jokiharju]. We had younger guys that, in a shortened camp environment, we're excited to see and see how that translates.
"In case of Alex, he went through [waivers]," Sweeney continued. "He's an absolute true professional. He actually had a similar camp last year and got off to a slow start, and he basically said, 'I'll be back.' And, he had a breakout, 30 games that really showed his value to our hockey club. Alex will be perfectly fine to hit the reset button. He'll make an impact. We believe that the depth of our club is going to be important through the course of an 84-game schedule."
The big takeaway is the excitement within the club. The Bruins believe they're even better than last year, with a deeper, more talented roster overall.
All that's left is to go out and prove it.
