The 2025 offseason will be telling for the Boston Bruins. If the team can find a way to lure a few contributors in free agency and maybe even capitalize on the trade market, they could quickly become playoff contenders again, just one season after trading away the majority of their core. If these additions fail to materialize, however, the Bruins could find themselves looking at a different timeline than expected. While the team needs to add to the roster to have any chance of success, an under-discussed talking point has been the addition, or more accurately, the impending return of Hampus Lindholm to the lineup next season.
Lindholm, the 31-year-old veteran from Sweden, played in just 17 games last season before suffering an injury while blocking a shot on Nov. 12 against the St. Louis Blues. The play resulted in Lindholm requiring surgery to repair a fractured patella. Though it was a complex injury to return from, the news out of Boston was that the healing process was going well and that there weren’t any setbacks to speak of; a silver lining in an otherwise disastrous situation for Lindholm.
The Bruins undeniably underperformed throughout the season, which led management to fire Jim Montgomery and the kick off a fire sale of many core players, including captain Brad Marchand, as well as Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau. While there’s no disputing the performance of the team, it’s important to note that, at the time of these trades, the Bruins were already missing Charlie McAvoy, who had suffered a significant injury stemming from an infection during his time at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, as well as Lindholm. Few teams in the NHL can compete at a high level without one of their top two defensive players, let alone both at the same time; this isn’t to say the Bruins would have been legitimate contenders if both players were healthy, but it’s still worth mentioning.
The Bruins need help this offseason and beyond, and while external help is a necessity, the internal reinforcements that will be added to the team are perhaps being underplayed. This, in addition to the hopes that Jeremy Swayman will also have a bounce-back campaign after signing a lengthy extension last offseason and putting together his worst NHL season to date, should give Bruins fans some level of optimism for next season. At the same time, projections may not be enough to satisfy fans right now, given how the team underperformed last season, and that’s understandable, too.
Lindholm’s Defensive Impact
The 6-foot-4, 224-pound Lindholm provides a whole different element to the Bruins’ blue line than any other player on the roster, though, and his return will be imperative to any sort of success the team hopes to achieve. Over the last two seasons, Lindholm’s offensive numbers have dipped drastically from the 10 goals and 53 points he had in 80 games the season prior. An easy way to explain this, however, is that Lindholm was relied upon way more defensively than he had been in any season of his career outside of the 2018-19 season, a year that saw Lindholm put up six goals and 28 points, very similar numbers to his three goals and 26 points from the 2023-24 season in Boston.
Over the past two seasons, Lindholm has started the vast majority of his shifts in the defensive zone—63.9% in 2023-24 and 63.2% the year before, compared to the 50.5–52% range from the few seasons prior.
With a healthy Lindholm (and McAvoy back) in the fold, the potential for management to add meaningful pieces through free agency or trades, and the expectation that Swayman will return to form, the Bruins could look much more formidable next season than they did for most of 2024-25. It won’t be easy, and nothing is guaranteed, but the idea that the Bruins could turn things around isn’t out of reach, especially with key veterans returning to full health and young players continuing to develop. While questions remain, it’s clear that if Lindholm can return to form and stabilize the blue line, he might just be the X-factor the Bruins need to climb back into playoff contention.
