Bruins GM Don Sweeney quickly strikes with low-risk, high reward signing

This is a giant offseason for the Boston Bruins and general manager Don Sweeney. Coming off a season that saw the Black and Gold miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs and finish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, there are a ton of huge decisions to be made this summer in terms of building a roster that returns to the postseason in 2025-26.

Just how Sweeney goes about retooling the roster remains to be seen, but he started on Friday night when he traded prospect Ryan Mast and a seventh-round draft pick in this month's NHL Entry Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Victor Soderstrom. It didn't take long for Sweeney to get his newly-acquired blueliner signed.

Bruins quickly sign Victor Soderstrom to low-risk, high-reward deal

Soderstrom, who is 24 years old, spent this past season with Brynäs IF in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) and was the league's best defenseman, scoring nine goals and dishing out 28 assists with a league-leading plus/minus of plus-28. He also won the Börje Salming Trophy as the league's best defenseman. Now, can he translate his game to the NHL after he inked a one-year, two-way contract with a cap hit of $775,000 for next season?

That's going to be the question for the 11th overall pick in the 2019 Entry Draft by the Arizona Coyotes, who has played in just 53 NHL games with one goal and 11 points for the Coyotes. However, he will have a chance to make an impression in training camp in September for new coach Marco Sturm. There is no doubt that he has the talent to do it, and right after the trade, he was signed, which tells you he's ready to make the jump back to finding a job in the NHL.

There are several needs the Bruins have this offseason, and finding a defenseman is one of them. Is Soderstrom going to solve the need Boston has? He could, and if he can do it, this is a low-risk, high-reward move from Sweeney.