The Boston Bruins spent last season proving everyone wrong. After finishing dead last in the Atlantic Division in 2024-25, they hired Marco Sturm, got a bounce-back year from Jeremy Swayman, and scraped together enough depth to hit 100 points. They even pushed Buffalo to six games in the first round before bowing out. That’s a nice story. But nice stories don’t win Cups, and the Bruins know it.
Let’s be honest about what this team is right now. They lost Victor Arvidsson to Detroit in free agency. They made a big swing for JJ Peterka, sending two first-round picks to Utah for the 24-year-old winger who’s scored 25-plus goals three years in a row. That’s a solid add. Peterka will slide onto the top line with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. But that top line still has a glaring hole at center.
Elias Lindholm was supposed to be the guy. The Bruins signed him in 2024 to be their No. 1 center, and two years later, the results are pretty clear: he’s not it. Lindholm has put up 17 goals in back-to-back seasons. He hit 47 points his first year in Boston and bumped that to 48 last season. For a guy making top-line money, that’s not cutting it. Zacha has filled in out of necessity, but he’s a winger playing center. The Bruins need a real answer.
Robert Thomas Makes Too Much Sense
St. Louis is in a weird spot. The Blues aren’t bad enough to tank and not good enough to contend. They’re stuck in the middle, and that usually means someone gets moved. Robert Thomas should be that someone if Boston is smart enough to make the call.
Thomas is 27, entering his prime, and already has a Cup ring from 2019 — won, painfully for Bruins fans, against Boston. He’s been a legitimate top-line center the last three seasons. In 2023-24 he posted 26 goals and 86 points. The next year he followed with 81. Last season he was limited to 64 games but still managed 64 points. He wins faceoffs at a career-best clip — 54.8 percent in 2024-25 — and he’s been above 52.5 percent for four straight years. That’s the kind of consistency Boston’s lineup hasn’t seen down the middle in a while.
The contract is manageable. Thomas is in year four of an eight-year deal paying $8.125 million this season. That’s a lot of money, sure, but for a true No. 1 center in his prime, it’s a fair price. The Bruins have the picks and prospects to make St. Louis listen.
Chris Kreider Could Help, But He’s Not the Fix
Anaheim might have to move Chris Kreider this offseason after matching that massive offer sheet Philly gave Leo Carlsson. The Ducks love what Kreider brought last season — 22 goals and 28 assists, plus a first-round playoff win over Edmonton — but they’re tight on cap space. Kreider’s due $6.125 million this year, and he’s still a weapon around the net. He scored 52 goals for the Rangers in 2021-22 and followed that with 36 and 39. He’s not a 50-goal guy anymore, but he’d give Boston a power play presence they’ve been missing.
But here’s the thing: Kreider is a winger. The Bruins already have Pastrnak and Peterka on the wings. What they don’t have is a center who can drive play, win draws, and make everyone around him better. That’s Thomas. If Boston walks away from this offseason without addressing that hole, they’re just running in place. And in the Atlantic Division, standing still gets you a fourth-place finish and another early vacation.
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