Boston Bruins
With 4 video games earlier than the NHL commerce deadline, the Bruins must make a ruling on a number of property.
Simply hours after the Bruins pried him out of Edmonton through commerce, Viktor Arvidsson was candid about what he was trying to convey to a seemingly rebuilding Boston roster.
“I’m gonna come there, I’m gonna play a accountable recreation, and I feel Marco [Sturm] is aware of precisely what he’s getting from me,” Arvidsson informed reporters on July 1, 2025, just a few hours after Boston parted with only a 2027 fifth-round choose to accumulate him from a cap-crunched Oilers squad.
“I’m gonna assist offensively and produce scoring. I do know I can do this. I do know I had a bit of little bit of a troublesome time final yr with that and the chance. I’m gonna convey that, I do know that. I’m actually assured that I’m gonna make the group higher.”
For the entire issues over whether or not the veteran’s deadly wrist shot had waned, the previous 30-goal risk has been a conduit of offensive manufacturing for Boston.
After tallying simply 15 objectives and 27 complete factors on a high-octane Edmonton roster final season, the 32-year-old Arvidsson has tallied 14 objectives and 28 factors over 45 video games.
A fleet-footed forechecker, Arvidsson’s willingness to muck issues up down low and create chaos — regardless of his 5-foot-10 body — has allowed a second line that includes him, Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt to thrive as an everyday risk in Sturm’s ahead grouping.
Solely David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie have extra 5-on-5 factors on Boston’s roster than Arvidsson’s 21.
In a season the place a number of unheralded gamers have punched above their weight to place Boston proper within the thick of a playoff race, buying Arvidsson stands as one in every of Don Sweeney’s craftiest dealings.
For simply the price of that fifth-round choose, the Bruins acquired a low-risk, high-reward expertise in Arvidsson who might conceivably be flipped on the 2026 commerce deadline for the proper worth.
Much like the Celtics buying a proficient scorer on an expiring contract in Anfernee Simons, a pending UFA in Arvidsson felt like the same asset for the Bruins — a future commerce chip whose true worth rested in what his membership might get for him down the street.
As long as Arvidsson regained his kind as a artful middle-six scoring winger, a 2025-26 Bruins seemingly gazing a bridge season might doubtless flip him for a second or third-round choose come March 2026 to additional add to their now stocked cabinet of draft capital.
As Sweeney and the Bruins had hoped for, Arvidsson has recouped his standing as a authentic scoring risk.
However, the 2025-26 Bruins aren’t precisely gazing one other misplaced season.
Coming back from the Olympic break, Boston sits within the closing Wild Card spot within the Japanese Convention at 32-20-5.
According to MoneyPuck’s playoff odds, the Bruins have a 61 % likelihood of creating the postseason.
That’s removed from a lock, with 4 factors separating Boston from the groups simply exterior of the playoff image in Columbus (Thursday’s opponent at TD Backyard) and the Capitals.
However, the Bruins are 12-2-3 since Dec. 31, 2025, and simply three factors sit between Boston and second place within the Atlantic Division.
It presents an fascinating conundrum for Sweeney and the Bruins, particularly with solely 4 extra video games separating Boston from the league’s March 6 commerce deadline.
Do the Bruins proceed to accumulate property by promoting off pending free brokers like Arvidsson?
Will they purchase — ideally looking for gamers who profit each the 2025-26 group and past (similar to Rasmus Andersson), reasonably than relinquish picks for pure leases?
Maybe they select to do a little bit of each.
Boston might simply keep the course, hold their picks, and let a blue-chip prospect like James Hagens be the group’s de-facto addition forward of a possible playoff push this spring.
From a pure enterprise perspective, turning a 2027 fifth-round choose right into a 2026 second-round choice by flipping Arvidsson to a Cup contender could be strong asset administration — particularly if the Bruins aren’t viewing Arvidsson as a long-term funding after this season.
However, it’s going to doubtless be a troublesome promote for a Bruins dressing room that not solely values Arvidsson’s veteran mettle and manufacturing, however would even be penalized for exceeding expectations in Sturm’s first yr on the helm.
Sturm has repeatedly sung the praises of Arvidsson’s impression with the Bruins, who’re 28-13-4 when he’s within the lineup. Within the 12 video games he’s missed as a consequence of damage, they’re simply 4-7-1.
“There’s a cause why I wished him,” Sturm mentioned after Boston’s Stadium Sequence loss to Tampa earlier this month, including: “He’s simply an excellent motor for us. Doesn’t matter the dimensions. He simply desires to be the perfect and needs to win very, very badly. … He drags different guys with him, and I assume that’s one thing you might have or not. … I’m glad to see that he brings a man like Zacha and Mittelstadt to the grind. And that’s why that line has been so good.”
As tempting as including one other draft choose could be, taking Arvidsson off this group would severely hamper a Bruins group that also stays firmly within the playoff image.
A line of Mittelstadt-Zacha-Arvidsson has arguably been one of many extra underrated ahead trios within the NHL this season, with Boston outscoring opponents, 21-11, in 354 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together.
An in-house substitute like Fabian Lysell doubtless gained’t suffice if the Bruins are actually attempting to punch their ticket to the postseason, nor would Boston doubtless need to throw Hagens right into a top-six position straight away.
Preserving Arvidsson would preclude Boston from including one other draft choose, whereas there’s no assure {that a} playoff run in 2026 would result in postseason bouts in Might or June — not at this stage of Boston’s retool.
Nonetheless, the Bruins ought to view a playoff look in 2026 as optimistic progress for a younger roster seemingly already nicely forward of schedule. Boston’s prospect pipeline and draft stockpile is already in fine condition between 4 first-round picks within the subsequent two years and several other children thriving like Hagens, Dean Letourenau, and Will Zellers.
A playoff run this spring doubtless dissipates if Arvidsson is shipped out by subsequent week.
It stays to be seen if retaining Arvidsson past this season is a clever transfer for a Bruins group seemingly heading in the right direction towards retrofitting a contending roster.
However, buying and selling him for a draft choose would additionally seemingly scuttle what has already been a significant step ahead for Boston to this point in 2025-26.
With 11 days to go till the commerce deadline, time is operating out for Sweeney and his employees to decide on the right path ahead for Boston.
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