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Bruins Re-Sign Marat Khusnutdinov, Michael Callahan

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The Bruins have signed pending free agents Marat Khusnutdinov and Michael Callahan to new deals, the team announced Sunday. Khusnutdinov gets a two-year, $1.85MM deal worth $925K per season, while Callahan gets a two-way contract for next year with a $775K cap hit. Callahan was slated to become a Group VI UFA, while Khusnutdinov could have had arbitration rights as an RFA.

While Boston’s thin prospect pool got a much-needed injection with this year’s draft, Khusnutdinov remains one of the organization’s more intriguing young centers. The Russian pivot, 23 in July, was acquired from the Wild in the deadline deal that sent winger Justin Brazeau to Minnesota. The Wild had previously selected him in the second round in 2020, and 2024-25 was his first full season in North America after signing his entry-level contract at the tail end of 2023-24.

Khusnutdinov had an underwhelming start to the season in the North Star State. He was a fine fourth-line piece on a team that relied on checking/defensive acumen from its depth forwards, but offense was hard to come by. He had some of the league’s worst advanced numbers in that regard, and his boxcar stats backed that up with only two goals and seven points in 57 games, averaging 11:14 per game.

The move to Boston seemed to breathe new life into the young center. It’s not as if his offense popped in a big way, but he did show more legitimate upside as a top-nine piece. He saw his deployment increase to 14:47 per game and was shifted to the wing, scoring five points in 18 games along with vastly improved possession impacts. The Moscow native should be penciled into a bottom-six role to begin next season as he looks to rediscover the offensive upside he displayed back home in Russia, scoring 41 points in 63 KHL games for SKA St. Petersburg in 2022-23.

Callahan will return to presumably serve a depth role in AHL Providence if he clears waivers. The 25-year-old Massachusetts native made his NHL debut this past season amid a rash of injuries on the Boston blue line, scoring a goal and logging a minus-five rating in 17 games while averaging 14:09 per night. He was used exclusively as a defensive specialist, unsurprisingly, given his lack of offense at the minor league level. The 6’2″ lefty had nine points and a plus-three rating in 45 games for Providence. He’s been an alternate captain for the P-Bruins the last two seasons and will now continue his run in the Boston organization, which signed him coming out of Providence College after the Coyotes selected him in the fifth round in 2018.

Bruins Select James Hagens Seventh Overall

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James Hagens is staying in Boston, as the Bruins have selected him with the seventh overall pick. Hagens, 18, put up 11 goals, 26 assists, and 37 points in 37 games last season at Boston College. General manager Don Sweeney and his front office benefit from Hagens sliding slightly down the draft board and keeping him in town. Although Sweeney left open the possibility of trading the No. 7 pick, the team ultimately couldn’t pass on Hagens as they rebuild toward contention.

While many believed at this time last year that Hagens was destined to be the first overall pick in this year’s draft, he slipped to seventh after producing less than expected in the NCAA. Still, Hagens game may be more NHL-ready than any of his peers in this draft class. The Long Island native plays bigger than his 5‑foot‑10, 185‑pound frame and has elite speed and scoring abilities.

In their 2025 NHL Draft Guide, Elite Prospects stated of Hagens:

“Hagens has seemingly been part of the hockey world’s zeitgeist from a young age. A fluid skater who is light on his edges, he leverages full-range wingspan handling, high activity rate crossovers, and a motor to create constant advantages. He layers pucks through tricky seams, hooks and slips feeds around pressure, and improvises on the fly with lightning-quick processing, punching away from threats and funneling play to the inside.” 

For his part, Hagens mentioned he’s glad to stay close to home and won’t have to change area codes.

“I’m so excited to be back in Boston. The Bruins are getting someone who puts his soul and body on the line. I love to win and I’m just so excited to be in Boston,” he said.

Bruins, Henri Jokiharju Having Extension Talks

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The Bruins are making an attempt to sign right-shot defenseman Henri Jokiharju to a new deal before he hits the open market next Tuesday, general manager Don Sweeney told reporters (via Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub).

“We have a need on the right side, no doubt about that,” Sweeney said. Boston acquired Jokiharju, 26, from the Sabres at the trade deadline for a 2026 fourth-round pick. It was a peculiar move for a team selling off high-priced assets at the time, but they simply needed NHL-experienced bodies on their blue line to make it through the last few weeks of the season after dealing away Brandon Carlo and losing Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy to injuries, robbing them of their top three rearguards.

While this offseason will ideally provide enough time for Lindholm and McAvoy to be 100% entering training camp and lead to a reset for the rest of the roster, it makes sense the Bruins would want to at least entertain the idea of retaining Jokiharju after surrendering an asset for him just a few months ago. While the 6’0″ Finn would typically be too young to test unrestricted free agency under non-Group VI status, he came into the league as a teenager with the Blackhawks in 2018-19 and has thus accrued seven years of service time. That puts him to UFA status this summer, regardless of his age.

Jokiharju had a tough year offensively, producing 10 points in 60 games. That tied for the worst points-per-game output of his career at 0.17. He’s more of a two-way threat, though, and the 29th overall pick of the 2017 draft wasn’t projected as a big point-getter in the NHL. Defensively, Jokiharju showed a lot to like after the trade. He closed the year with a plus-seven rating in 18 games for Boston, backed up by a strong 50.7 CF% on an understaffed team in difficult deployment. He averaged 21:22 per game, which would have been the second-highest mark of his career over a full season.

There’s a clear fit for him as a fine second-pairing option to help anchor youngster Mason Lohrei or in more sheltered third-pairing minutes if Boston can make a more notable addition on the right side, too, bumping Andrew Peeke to the press box or waivers. There won’t be many options to replace him on the open market if he walks, unless the Bruins make themselves a legitimate contender for a name like Aaron Ekblad or Dante Fabbro (assuming either even gets to the market). That will give Jokiharju some leverage in talks, though. If he hits the open market, AFP Analytics projects he’ll earn a three-year deal worth $3.6MM per season. That’s a little pricey for a player who struggled to hold down a role on an underperforming Buffalo roster in the past couple of years, but he has shown top-four competency in flashes and might still have some room for growth in his game, unlike his older UFA peers.

Bruins’ Daniil Misyul Signs With KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl

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Bruins pending RFA defenseman Daniil Misyul has opted to return to his native Russia for the 2025-26 season. He’s signed a one-year deal with the Kontinental Hockey League’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, per a league release. Boston can retain Misyul’s NHL rights through 2027-28 if they issue him a qualifying offer by the June 30 deadline.

Misyul did not appear in an NHL game for the Bruins after being acquired from the Devils in exchange for depth forward Marc McLaughlin at the trade deadline. He played out the season with AHL Providence, recording a goal, 27 PIMs, and a minus-two rating in 11 appearances. He totaled a 1-8–9 scoring line with a -10 rating in 58 AHL games on the year across Providence and Utica.

A third-round pick by the Devils in 2019, Misyul just completed the two-year, entry-level contract he signed with New Jersey in 2023. The 6’3″, 196-lb lefty made his NHL debut for New Jersey this season before the trade. He logged a minus-one rating, one shot attempt, one block, and one hit in 12:23 of ice time in an 8-5 loss to the Lightning on Oct. 22.

The Belarus native had spent his entire professional career in Russia with Lokomotiv before coming to North America two years ago. He recorded 21 points and a +28 rating in 184 games with the club throughout five seasons and won a silver medal with Russia back at the 2020 World Juniors. Yaroslavl is coming off its first Gagarin Cup title and first championship since winning the Russian Superleague in 2003. Their 2025-26 roster includes former NHLers Byron Froese, Mac Hollowell, Alexei Melnichuk, Alexander Radulov, and Alexander Yelesin in addition to Predators 2024 first-round pick Yegor Surin.

Bruins Sign Mason Lohrei To Two-Year Extension

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4 PM: The details of Lohrei’s contract have been revealed. He will make a $2.95MM salary, and carry a $250K signing bonus, in the first year of his deal. In year two, the signing bonus will be lumped into his salary, earning him $3.2MM on the year. Contract details come courtesy of PuckPedia.

10 AM: The Bruins signed pending RFA defenseman Mason Lohrei to a two-year extension on Monday, per a club announcement. He’ll count $3.2MM against the cap for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns for a total contract value of $6.4MM.

Lohrei, 24, lands a bridge deal coming off his first full NHL season. The 2020 second-round pick has shown promise as a puck-mover and a potential top-four option on Boston’s left side to complement Hampus Lindholm, but he’s not fully there yet.

A knee injury that ended Lindholm’s season in November meant Boston had to play Lohrei in more minutes than they would have liked. He was always meant as a longer-term project with some raw defensive details in his game, and that was extremely apparent in 2024-25. Averaging over 19 minutes per game, Lohrei actually led Boston defensemen in scoring with 33 points (5 G, 28 A) in 77 appearances but earned the distinction of having the worst plus-minus mark in the league this year, checking in at a gnarly -43 mark. While that figure is a bit exaggerated due to poor goaltending, he still only managed a 47.5 xGF% at 5-on-5 according to Natural Stat Trick – a pedestrian figure, even compared to his Bruins teammates.

Lohrei wasn’t Calder-eligible because he split 2023-24 somewhat evenly between Boston and AHL Providence. He put up a 4-9–13 scoring line with a minus-two rating in 41 games in his first taste of NHL action last year, averaging a hair under 17 minutes per night.

He’s shown the ability to be more of a two-way threat at the collegiate and AHL levels, and the Bruins are banking on him discovering how to translate that to the NHL in what they hope can be more sheltered minutes next season. That’s where virtually all of his upside lies – despite boasting a 6’5″, 220-lb frame, he’s not a particularly physical defender. He only logged 25 hits this year. If he can’t become a well-rounded enough player to convert into a top-four fixture, they’re not taking much of a risk today by only making a short-term commitment with a reasonable qualifying offer upon expiry in 2027.

The extension takes Lohrei up to his last summer of team control. A one-year extension on the end would walk him right to unrestricted free agency in 2028. As for Boston’s cap situation, they still have over $23MM left to spend, but still have another notable RFA to sign in breakout forward Morgan Geekie. They also have only 27 standard contracts signed throughout the active roster and non-roster lists for 2025-26.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Geekie: Contract Talks 'Pretty Preliminary' So Far

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  • Bruins forward Morgan Geekie told Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe that discussions on a new contract have been “pretty preliminary” so far. The 26-year-old was non-tendered the last time he was a pending restricted free agent, signing a two-year, $4MM deal with Boston that proved to be quite a bargain.  Geekie had 39 points in 2023-24 and then followed that up with a 33-goal, 57-point effort this season.  That could push his price tag past the $5MM mark on a multi-year deal this time around.  He’s arbitration-eligible but with hearings generally running from July 20 to August 4, it’s possible that Boston’s plan is to simply let him file for arbitration late next week and then start to have more substantive discussions on a new agreement at that time.

Boston Bruins Hire Steve Spott As Assistant Coach

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The Boston Bruins have hired their third assistant coach for the 2025-26 NHL season, joining Chris Kelly and Jay Leach. The Bruins announced they’ve hired Steve Spott as their final assistant coach, and he’ll primarily work with the team’s power play.

Despite spending most of his adult life in varying roles for the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers and Kitchener Rangers, Spott didn’t join the professional ranks until the 2013-14 season, when he was named head coach of the Toronto Marlies. Spott coached the Marlies to a 45-25-2-4 record, a North Division title, and a Western Conference Final appearance. That one-year test as the Marlies head coach earned Spott a promotion to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench in the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach.

After two years with the Maple Leafs organization, Spott joined Pete DeBoer’s staff with the San Jose Sharks ahead of the 2015-16 season. The two had previously worked together in Kitchener and enjoyed success with the Sharks, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2016. Unfortunately, the two were fired midway through the 2019-20 season after the Sharks got off to a 15-16-2 start.

It wouldn’t take long for either to find work, as Spott and DeBoer were both hired by the Vegas Golden Knights in their same roles a month later. Their time in Vegas was short-lived, and both were let go after the Golden Knights failed to make the playoffs in the 2021-22 season.

Continuing to work together, DeBoer brought Spott with him to the Dallas Stars for the 2022-23 NHL season. Spott and DeBoer led the Stars to three consecutive Western Conference Finals, but they did not reach the Stanley Cup Final. Dallas finished with a top-10 powerplay in two out of three years with Spott serving as the team’s primary powerplay coach.

Boston Bruins Interested In Islanders' Alexander Romanov

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Boston Bruins Announce Development Camp Roster

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Today, the Boston Bruins announced their preliminary roster for the upcoming development camp as the offseason approaches. The 22-player roster will surely grow, especially after the Bruins make their seven selections in the 2025 NHL Draft, if not more. The current iteration of the roster is as follows, and will include where each player was rostered during the 2024-25 campaign, and their draft ranking:

Forwards

Dalton Bancroft (Cornell University, undrafted)
Andre Gasseau (Boston College, 213th overall, 2021)
Beckett Hendrickson (University of Minnesota, 124th overall, 2023)
Dean Letourneau (Boston College, 25th overall, 2024)
Bret Link (Colorado College, undrafted)
Jonathan Morello (Dubuque Fighting Saints, 154th overall, 2024)
Logan Morrell (Arizona State University, undrafted)
Casper Nässén (Miami University (Ohio), 214th overall, 2023)
Chris Pelosi (Quinnipiac University, 92nd overall, 2023)
Ryan Walsh (Cornell University, 188th overall, 2023)
Ethan Whitcomb (University of Connecticut, undrafted)
Will Zellers (Green Bay Gamblers, 76th overall, 2024)

Defensemen

Jackson Edward (Providence Bruins, 200th overall, 2022)
CJ Foley (Dartmouth College, undrafted)
Ty Gallagher (Colorado College, 217th overall, 2021)
Elliott Groenewold (Quinnipiac University, 110th overall, 2024)
Loke Johansson (Moncton Wildcats, 186th overall, 2024)
Kristian Kostadinski (Boston College, 220th overall, 2023)
Ben Robertson (Cornell University, undrafted)

Goalies

Albin Boija (University of Maine, undrafted)
Cameron Korpi (University of Michigan, undrafted)
Philip Svedebäck (Providence College, 117th overall, 2021)

Multiple Teams Showing Interest In Jean-Gabriel Pageau

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With a center trade market that might not be as busy as initially anticipated and one top option (Brock Nelson) off the UFA list already, teams will be starting to take a look at other options to try to upgrade down the middle.  It appears one of the players is receiving some attention now as Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News relays (Twitter links) that at least three teams have called to inquire about Islanders middleman Jean-Gabriel Pageau over the last week.  One of those teams is believed to be the Bruins.

The 32-year-old will be entering the final year of his contract next season on a deal that carries a $5MM cap charge but only a $3.5MM salary.  Pageau will have some say in the matter as well as he has a 16-team no-trade clause.

Pageau has been a speculative trade candidate for a couple of years now with the Islanders often running close to having salary cap issues.  At the time, the thought was that New York might have to incentivize a team to take on Pageau’s contract or potentially pay it down in order to get a positive-value return.

That shouldn’t be the case now, however.  With an expiring contract and a thinning-out market, new GM Mathieu Darche should be in a good spot to elicit a good return for Pageau’s services.

It also certainly helps that Pageau is coming off one of his best offensive years.  This season, he had 14 goals and 28 assists in 79 games.  His assist total was a career-high while his point total came in one shy of his personal best set back in 2015-16 with Ottawa.  Over his past four seasons, he has notched at least 33 points and has scored double-digit goals in 10 of the last 11 years.

Pageau has also long been an above-average player at the faceoff dot and took that to another level in 2024-25, winning a career-best 59.6% of his draws while leading all Islander forwards in shorthanded ice time.  Basically, he continues to be a middle-six option as he has been for the last several seasons.

The Islanders have nearly $21MM in projected cap space this summer, per PuckPedia.  However, with a long list of restricted free agents to contend with, that money is going to get spent up in a hurry and New York will be right back up against the cap ceiling.  That makes Pageau a logical candidate to try to move over the coming weeks and it appears New York will have multiple suitors for his services if they go that route.

The fit in Boston would be intriguing.  The Bruins already have Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt, and Pavel Zacha under contract while youngsters Fraser Minten and Matthew Poitras are waiting in the wings.  While Boston could use a center upgrade toward the top of their lineup, Pageau would fit more in the middle of their forward group where their depth already lies.  That said, one of the veterans could be moved to the wing if need be or moved elsewhere if GM Don Sweeney wants to further shake up his group.  In the meantime, we’ll see in the coming weeks if any other suitors emerge for Pageau’s services.

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