The 2025 NHL free agency was one for the ages. With the draft lacking depth, teams across the league were forced to seek free agency to pick up unrestricted free agents and bolster their rosters for the upcoming season.
While the league saw some blockbuster trades and last-minute buyouts, this offseason hasn’t been as epic as previous years. Not every team made it through July with the same results, either.
While some teams had success, others endured a lackluster July. According to two insiders, the Boston Bruins might fall into that second category.
Why Isn’t Tanner Jeannot Enough to Validate Boston’s Offseason?
The Bruins started their 2025 offseason by adding key forwards Viktor Arvidsson, Tanner Jeannot, and Sean Kuraly. Boston also managed to retain all of their existing key players.
However, beyond these retentions and trades, the Bruins haven’t had the kind of offseason that fans hoped would spark a turnaround. According to ESPN’s NHL insiders Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton, GM Don Sweeney isn’t getting the job done.
“Boston added a haul of forwards via free agency and one trade (for Arvidsson, who cost the Bruins a 2027 fifth-round pick),” the duo wrote. “And yet, Boston didn’t address its largest need, a true top-six winger.”
The numbers tell the story of Boston’s offensive struggles. The Bruins sat at the bottom of the Atlantic Division at the end of the season. Right-wing David Pastrnak leads the team with 106 points (43 goals and 63 assists), making him the only serious offensive threat. Beyond Pastrnak, no one else on the roster even reached 60 points.
Clark and Shilton point out how Sweeney focused on the blue line when the forward group needed more attention.
“Instead, GM Don Sweeney bolstered the Bruins’ bottom six with a number of players, some of whom probably will have to play higher in the lineup at some point anyway,” they wrote. “The most eye-opening decision by Sweeney was to ink Jeannot to a five-year, $17 million contract.”
With an average annual value of $3.4 million, Jeannot doesn’t look like the right fit for a team desperate for scoring. Jeannot hasn’t reached double-digit goals since the 2021-22 season with the Nashville Predators.
This past season with the Los Angeles Kings tells the whole story. Jeannot missed 12 regular-season games and the playoffs entirely. Across those 67 games he did play, he managed just 13 points.
Clark and Shilton say bluntly: “That’s a sizable investment in a third-line (at best) skater who will carry a $3.4 million AAV until he’s 33.”
The insider’s final assessment doesn’t mince words. It gets straight to the point, revealing Boston’s fundamental challenge.
“He’s physical and feisty,” Clark and Shilton wrote. “But the Bruins need real scoring help (only two players on their roster finished last season with more than 20 goals), and it’s not clear that Sweeney was able to accomplish that so far.”
Given the Bruins’ ongoing scoring struggles, this move may not be enough to lift them above the hump. That’s why Clark and Shilton gave Boston’s offseason a B, which is solid but not the game-changer the team truly needs.
