The Boston Bruins have 12 games remaining in the 2024-25 season. While they aren’t mathematically eliminated from making the playoffs yet and are only five points out of the final wild card spot, it would be a tall order to see them leapfrog the teams currently ahead of them in the Eastern Conference. This is especially true when looking at the listless way they’ve played in some of their recent matchups.
Most fans and people around the organization seem to have accepted the fact that the Bruins will not be making the playoffs this season. Their trade deadline selling spree certainly sends the message they’re going into a rebuild with a very different-looking team to take the ice at the start of the 2025-26 season.
This final stretch of games is thus a good opportunity for the organization to really focus on giving quality NHL minutes to the young players and prospects. It’s an important opportunity to evaluate these guys, figure out if there is a future for them in Boston, and give them a chance to develop chemistry with each other.
Who Should Be Evaluated
There are a couple of names that I think the Bruins should be focusing on in this final stretch. One of them is Fabian Lysell, who was finally brought up from the American Hockey League (AHL) this week but didn’t play during their March 20 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. This is frankly a bizarre decision from head coach Joe Sacco and general manager Don Sweeney.
The 2021 first-round pick has had a good season playing with the Providence Bruins in the AHL with 11 goals and 34 points in 51 games. Everything coming out of Providence about Lysell sounds positive with tremendous improvements made to his complete, 200-foot game. So it’s confusing why he has yet to see NHL ice for the post-deadline Bruins. He is the number one guy the team should be evaluating and trying to assess whether or not he has a future in Boston. If they don’t think he does, they can’t hold onto him for too long, or else he’ll lose trade value.
Lysell has only appeared in one NHL game so far in his career. He’s put in the time in Providence, and now with nothing left to lose this season, it should be time to give him more NHL experience. They should be playing him in the top six, giving him quality minutes, and seeing what he can really do.
Georgii Merkulov is another guy who should be given a shot in Boston in this final stretch of the season. He appeared in six games earlier in 2024-25 and wasn’t bad in that time, registering an assist, his first NHL point. He was a highly anticipated college free agent a few years ago and has mainly spent his time with the organization down in Providence.
Like Lysell, it feels like a no-brainer to play him in Boston right now. He’s second in points in Providence with 13 goals and 48 points in 52 games. Merkulov has been talked about for several seasons now, and this would give the front office a good opportunity to evaluate him rather than keep him in limbo.
Matthew Poitras has been back and forth between Boston and Providence this season, and it’s been a season of growth for him. Same with Fraser Minten, who was acquired at the deadline as part of the Brandon Carlo trade. He appeared in 15 games for the Maple Leafs this season, registering two goals and four points, and seems to be adjusting well to Providence.
Poitras and Minten are young (both born a few months apart in 2004), so I could see an argument to keep them in Providence for the remainder of the season to continue to build up confidence at the professional level. But at the same time, they’ve both spent significant time doing that very thing in the AHL this season and could benefit from more NHL time. Plus, it is just as valuable to learn how to lose at the NHL level as it is to win. Guys need chances to lose or play badly in a game and then learn how to turn it around and bounce back afterward.
There is a difference between playing in the AHL and the NHL, and sometimes the best way to determine if a guy is ready for the NHL level is to allow him to play there. All four guys have had good seasons in Providence, and now with nothing really to lose, the organization needs the chance to evaluate them at the NHL level.
Young Bruins Playing Together
The Bruins roster has almost had a total turnover from the team that was on the ice in their record-setting 2022-23 season. After the trade deadline, the Bruins are one of the youngest teams in the NHL. While younger NHL teams don’t typically win Stanley Cups, they can grow together into a championship team, and that has to be the hope for the Bruins organization at this point.
Now, for them to grow together, they need to play together. As I’ve mentioned before, the Bruins already have some well-established pieces to build a roster around. Many around the NHL would be happy to have a core group composed of David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Jeremy Swayman, even if it’s been a down season for Swayman and Lindholm has been injured since November. There is still a lot to be excited about with those four guys to build around.
The question is then how to build out the roster from those guys. Due to their contracts, Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm aren’t going anywhere. Then there is Mason Lohrei and Morgan Geekie, who have both been rare bright spots this season. Geekie needs a new contract, but after surviving the deadline, the Bruins should be hard at work getting him signed to an extension.
But this still leaves a lot of spots and opportunities for the young guys to take advantage of, both the ones already playing on the roster and those who should be given a chance in this final stretch. In a way, “turning the team” over to them to an extent seems to be the right move to see how they play together and assess what their potential could be.
There’s a lot of excitement around Marat Khusnutdinov, who’s been playing on the second line since arriving from Minnesota at the trade deadline. Would it be such a bad idea to try him on a line with Poitras/Minten and Lysell? Could Johnny Beecher have a similar trajectory to Trent Frederic and grow from a primarily fourth liner to a solid, middle-six winger? What about Michael Callahan and Henri Jokiharju? How would they do if given more minutes on special teams? What could Merkulov do at the NHL level with more than 13 minutes of ice time?
The Bruins have many questions surrounding their young players, and they’ll remain question marks unless given chances to play in the NHL. They need to start developing chemistry with each other to help aid that process.
Nothing to Lose
There are 12 games left. The Bruins are not playing particularly well, sitting at 3-6-1 in their last 10 games. As they set out on a five-game, Western road trip, what do they have to lose playing more young guys and giving them larger opportunities? They may not succeed, especially with the struggles of the team around them, but there can still be opportunities to shine and show their potential even in losses. Look at Khusnutdinov, even in their recent losses, he’s still managed to leave good impressions and build a case to be a part of the future plans of the franchise.
The team is highly unlikely to make it into the playoffs, so the name of the game for the final stretch is keeping fans engaged. The best way to do that would be to give these young guys a shot. Let fans get excited about new potential talent to look forward to next season. Show the fanbase that efforts are being made to build towards the future. They got the picks and players at the deadline, now start doing something with that.
I know I’ve been a broken record on this topic for months now, but at this point, what is the argument for not playing guys like Lysell and Merkulov? To not see Minten’s Bruins debut or bring Poitras back up to Boston? It has to be more exciting than watching the current lineup limp to the finish line.
