How it was Made: Building the unbeatable Boston Bruins

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The Boston Bruins have been consistently dominant all season, and are on the verge of what could be the best regular season in NHL history. They’re currently on pace break the all-time record of 132 points set by the Montreal Canadiens in 1976-77, as well as on pace to finish with 64 wins, which would just best the current record set by the Detroit Red Wings in 1995-96 and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19.

It took a lot of time and work to get this team to the point it’s at now, as getting some steals in the draft helped establish some foundational pieces as early as two decades ago, blending that in which some fresher elite talent to complement them, on top of making some smart and savvy moves on the free agent and trade market to bring in solid depth pieces at their lowest value.

A lot had to happen, so let’s take a dive into the steps that brought these pieces in, and in some cases, kept them around as long as they did.

Who Needs Top 10 Picks? – Part 1 (2003-2007)

It was 2003. “In da Club” by 50 Cent was dominating the charts, Disney owned the movie market (nice to see so much has changed) with Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Boston Bruins had failed to make any significant noise in the playoffs for more than 10 years.

They wouldn’t this year either, getting just one win in the first round against the New Jersey Devils before bowing out of the playoffs. Luckily for them, it was the epic 2003 Draft, one loaded with talent. However, that wouldn’t come to them in the first round, as while Mark Stuart was a serviceable defenseman, he was never a needle-mover.

Instead, it was the second round that would favor them a bit more, as they selected a young Quebecois centerman named Patrice Bergeron at 45th overall, laying out the foundations of the first elite core. Injuries would delay his breakout, but when he finally did, he’d become the most dominant defensive centerman in the league to a point that few could comprehend.

The next year saw similar results. While their regular season was much more successful, finishing first in their division, they would only get seven games of playoff action, falling to their historic rival in the Montreal Canadiens. But, the draft would reward them again with their first selection that came late in the second round, getting David Krejci at No. 63 and adding their go-to second line center behind Bergeron for the future.

After the lockout, the Bruins would miss the playoffs for two straight seasons. One of the low points in franchise history came in November 2005, when they traded superstar center Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks for Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau. Thornton wound up winning scoring title and MVP that season and built a Hall of Fame career in San Jose.

The Bruins would end up with the fifth and eighth picks in 2006 and 2007. Phil Kessel wouldn’t last long on the Bruins and Zach Hamill would play the second fewest games out of the top fifteen picks in 2007, the Bruins would get some bang for their buck later in 2006, selecting Brad Marchand at pick No. 71, with very few expecting him to be the elite-grade pest that he’s become today. They also rolled the dice by trading Calder Trophy winning goaltender Andrew Raycroft to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a young prospect named Tuukka Rask in summer 2006. Continuing an offseason to remember, they made what some consider the most successful free agent signing of the cap era, adding Zdeno Chara, who would become their longtime captain on the road to a Hall of Fame career.

Oh, and just a few days prior to selecting Marchand, the Bruins would hire a longtime Bruin in Don Sweeney into the role of Director of Player Development.

The Prime of the Old Core (2007-2014)

It didn’t take the Bruins long to return to the postseason, as 2008 would mark the first of seven straight seasons that the Bruins made the playoffs. But success still didn’t come right away, with a first round exit and two second round exits to start (including being the second team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 series lead in 2010 to the Philadelphia Flyers), and suddenly a good chunk of the team was on the hot seat as the Bruins began overtime in Game 7 against the Canadiens after blowing a 3-1 series lead in 2011.

The start of this story could have begun very differently if the Bruins broke up their core after that game, but instead Nathan Horton kept everyone on the team with this iconic moment.

That proved to be a key shift for the Bruins, kickstarting their first deep playoff run of this era. They avenged their blown series the previous year by completing the sweep against the Flyers, they edged out the Tampa Bay Lightning in a goalie duel between two oldies in Tim Thomas and Dwayne Roloson, and then they bullied the Vancouver Canucks to secure their first Stanley Cup in nearly 40 years.

Oh, and guess who played big roles? Krejci led the postseason in scoring, while Bergeron and Marchand scored two goals each in the deciding Game 7 victory over the Canucks.

The Bruins would reach the final again in 2013, taking the Chicago Blackhawks to six games, and follow that up with a Presidents’ Trophy win in 2014, but they wouldn’t get another Cup with this group.

Meanwhile, by that point, Don Sweeney was already comfy in his new role as an Assistant General Manager that he got in 2009, and the Bruins would also make their first addition to the 2022-23 Bruins’ blueline, drafting Matt Grzelcyk in 2012 with the 85th overall pick.

Who Needs Top 10 Picks? – Part 2 (2014-2018)

2014 would mark the end of this era of the Bruins, as not only would they start to move out significant pieces like Milan Lucic, Johnny Boychuk, and Dougie Hamilton over the next year, but they also made their first big addition to the new core amidst their brief retool – selecting David Pastrnak 25th overall. It was a smart pick at the time, but I don’t think anyone knew it would be this smart then.

They also made a couple other picks of significance that year, selecting Ryan Donato at No. 56 and Anders Bjork at No. 146. Now, you may wonder why I’ve included them since they aren’t on the Bruins in 2022-23, but just wait, we’ll get to them later.

A year later, and Peter Chiarelli is out the door as GM in Boston as they miss the playoffs for the first time since 2007, and taking his place is none other than Don Sweeney. While he’s got a strong reputation these days, he didn’t get off to the best start in the 2015 offseason, squandering three straight first round picks amidst one of the deepest drafts in NHL history. He still got a couple NHL players out of it in Jakub Zboril and Jake DeBrusk, but they could have had Mat Barzal, Kyle Connor, and Oliver Kylington instead. They did make another solid add in the second round though, drafting Brandon Carlo at 37th overall.

Next year was another one spent outside of the playoffs, but thankfully they would be a bit more successful with their first round picks… well, one of them. At No. 14, they would take defenseman Charlie McAvoy, another big piece for the modern success of the Bruins. At No. 29, they missed a bit by selecting Trent Frederic, but come 2021, he’d establish a consistent spot in the Bruins lineup, although not the high-end talent you’d hope for with a first round pick.

In 2017, they returned to the playoffs and lost in the first round to the Ottawa Senators, but that didn’t stop them from once again adding some more future pieces in the offseason. Their first-round pick would go to Urho Vaakanainen (another name of note for a later time), and then adding a goalie to the system in Jeremy Swayman in the fourth round. Along with that, they made a signing for their AHL team, the Providence Bruins, in defenseman Connor Clifton.

2018 saw them take a step further, losing to the Lightning in the second round, but once again they made moves in the offseason with future implications. The draft saw them take Jakub Lauko with the 77th pick, Clifton would impress enough in Providence to get himself an NHL deal, and the Bruins as we know them now would make their first UFA signing of note here by signing John Moore to a deal that aged quite poorly very quickly, so once again, the significance will come later.

Putting the Pieces Together (2018-2022)

With the Bruins looking like one of the best teams after 2018, the new core was beginning to establish itself in Boston. The dominant top line of Marchand, Bergeron, and Pastrnak was terrifying the league, and McAvoy was already setting himself up to be Chara’s replacement on the blueline, but they still needed more depth beyond that top line.

Their first attempt at that would be acquiring Charlie Coyle from the Minnesota Wild for a fourth round pick and Donato (told you he would come up again). That move paid off relatively well, as the Bruins had a deeper team to best their opponents (along with a bunch of upsets of the other top teams in the league giving them a slightly easier path) all the way to their third Stanley Cup Final in eight years. The St. Louis Blues would be the victors, and some wondered if that was it for the older members of this group.

They followed that with another Presidents’ Trophy in 2020, but didn’t even end up with the top seed in the playoffs as the COVID-19 pandemic and the bubble postseason that it spawned created a bit of chaos. They lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Lightning in the second round and the need for depth beyond that dominant top line was more prevalent than ever. A flat cap would make that tricky, so their solution was to buy low on Craig Smith, a move that paid off well… for the first two seasons.

That still wouldn’t be quite enough in a tough, newly-formed East Division that was the result of the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, and this time Sweeney needed to be bold. His solution? Buy low on Taylor Hall amidst a nightmare season for the Buffalo Sabres, needing only a second-round pick and the aforementioned Anders Bjork to get the former Hart Trophy winner. He also shored up the blueline by acquiring Mike Reilly from the Ottawa Senators for a third, but Hall would have the bigger impact, really gelling on that second line with Krejci and Smith.

And yet, another second round exit. If that wasn’t bad enough, their center depth would take a big hit with Krejci deciding to return home and play hockey in the Czech Republic, while longtime goaltender Rask would need surgery that basically put an end to his career.

Suddenly, the depth was a bigger problem than ever, especially down the middle. Coyle would assume the second line center role to start, but they needed insurance, and they needed a goalie. Sweeney added a few center options in Erik Haula, Tomas Nosek, and Nick Foligno, while he looked to Linus Ullmark to be the backup plan for Rask. On top of that, he added another piece to the blueline by signing Derek Forbort.

While Haula would end up being the player assuming the second line center role and having one of his best seasons there, it still wasn’t enough. The Bruins needed to make a big swing at the deadline and shore up their center depth an- what’s that? The Bruins added another defenseman instead?

While it didn’t help that the center market wasn’t the strongest, especially after Tomas Hertl re-signed with the San Jose Sharks, it was interesting at the time to see them go after Hampus Lindholm instead, especially for the price of the trade (a first, two seconds, and the aforementioned Vaakanainen and Moore) and the extension immediately after.

The result? A first round exit at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes. Suddenly, things seemed even more bleak. Head coach Bruce Cassidy had reportedly lost the room. Bergeron was contemplating retirement. DeBrusk had requested a trade. Marchand and McAvoy needed offseason surgery that would keep them out for a couple months to start the season. Pastrnak was in the final year of his contract with no talks of an extension. Not only did it seem like they weren’t a Cup contender going into 2022-23, they might not even make the playoffs.

The Last Dance? (2023)

Boy, were we wrong, eh?

The Bruins would fire Cassidy, bringing in Jim Montgomery as his replacement for next season, creating a ripple effect that offseason. Not only was Bergeron back, Krejci was convinced to return and fill that second line center role again. DeBrusk didn’t want a trade anymore. There were still questions about if Krejci would be the same, and if Marchand and McAvoy’s injuries would cause a slow start, but they still seemed playoff-bound. And the vibes were definitely there, as the talk surrounding this team came down to three words.

“The Last Dance.”

The Bruins would also move on from Haula and swap him with Pavel Zacha to establish the Bruins strong second line with Pastrnak and Krejci, better known as the Czech Line. And there was another low-key signing that would pay dividends early in the season, with A.J. Greer coming in as a depth option.

And you know the rest from there. Marchand returned after just a couple weeks, while McAvoy’s absence was filled quite effectively by Lindholm, and suddenly those injuries were far from an issue. That got the Bruins off to a seemingly unbeatable start, and they haven’t looked back. There has yet to be a moment where the Bruins seem in a tailspin, just putting in win streak after win streak, while Ullmark has had a career year in net, making way for what seems to inevitably be his first Vezina Trophy win.

With this being the supposed last year of their top two centers, they had to go all-in at the deadline as well, and did they ever. They sent a first, second, and third round pick along with a struggling Craig Smith to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov, and they traded another first and a fourth to the Detroit Red Wings for Tyler Bertuzzi. Suddenly, the unbeatable team looks even more unbeatable, and they’ve coasted their way to a playoff spot, clinching it with a month to go. There’s still some runway left on the year, but they have plenty of time to rest before the big games now.

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As the playoffs arrive, the Bruins look to be the team to beat, and many wonder if anyone can dethrone them in the playoffs. But, we’ve seen this play out before. Just four years ago, we watched a 128-point Lightning team suffer one of the biggest upsets in hockey history, getting swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round after everyone thought they couldn’t be stopped.

That’s just the randomness that comes with the sport. Will that be the Bruins legacy, or will their Last Dance resemble the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls team from which that name originates from?

Timeline of Current Bruins roster construction

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