Less than an hour after Don Sweeney and his staff ripped off the Band-Aid and dismantled a hefty portion of Boston’s depth chart, the Bruins’ GM stressed that said fire sale wasn’t the start of an arduous rebuild.
“You start to look at draft capital that we had been spending over a course of most of the years, it starts to take its toll. And you have to have a little bit of a step-back approach at times,” Sweeney said on March 7, 2025.
“Did we come in this morning knowing that we were making every one of these moves? No, but we were prepared if things that we would like presented. We didn’t burn it down.
“We have a lot of guys. Now a couple of those guys in particular are injured that are big, big players and pieces for our group. Now we have to do a better job of building around it and charting the course that says we’re back. And that’s the job.”
Sweeney’s confidence in Boston orchestrating a retool on the fly as opposed to a larger overhaul felt like a hopeful musing, especially given the number of players Boston shipped out over the span of a few days.
By the time the NHL trade deadline finally passed on March 7, the Bruins had executed seven trades in four days, moving lineup regulars like Trent Frederic, Justin Brazeau, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, and captain Brad Marchand.
For Sweeney and a Bruins team no longer able to duck the inevitable bill coming due after years spent trading away draft capital, that deluge of deals in March stood as the best path forward to replenish a barren prospect pipeline and hit the reset button.
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### A Season of Struggle Yields Promising Prospects
The subsequent plummet down the standings that spring helped Boston secure a top-10 pick, landing a potential franchise fixture for the future in Boston College center James Hagens, who has 11 points in 11 games this year with the Eagles.
But Hagens has been far from the only promising byproduct drawn out of a season of misery for the Original Six franchise.
As painful as it might have been for some Bruins fans to see Marchand hoist the Stanley Cup for an Atlantic Division nemesis in Florida this past summer, the Bruins’ total haul of picks, players, and prospects are already starting to offer plenty of promise for a team that seems to be ahead of schedule in said retool.
Here’s a look back at a few of Boston’s trade-deadline deals, many of which are already posting positive returns.
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### To Edmonton: Trent Frederic, Max Jones
### To Boston: Max Wanner, 2025 Second-Round Pick, 2026 Fourth-Round Pick
Rather than sign a pending UFA in Frederic to a new long-term deal, Boston parted ways with the former third-line stalwart, with the top return being a 2025 second-round pick.
With that selection, Boston added another promising pivot prospect in Boston College center Will Moore, who has posted five points (two goals, three assists) through the first 11 games of his freshman campaign.
Moore has the makings of a dependable two-way forward in a middle-six grouping after a few years spent at Chestnut Hill.
Frederic, meanwhile, struggled to get going last season with the Oilers after returning from injury, scoring just one goal and three assists during Edmonton’s run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Edmonton handed Frederic an eight-year, $30.8 million contract this summer, but the 27-year-old forward hasn’t exactly lived up to his billing as a pugnacious forward capable of delivering some scoring punch.
Over 20 games, Frederic has scored just one goal and posted zero assists while averaging 12:09 of ice time per game with the Oilers this year.
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### To Minnesota: Justin Brazeau
### To Boston: Marat Khusnutdinov, Jakub Lauko, 2026 Sixth-Round Pick
After a dreadful showing with the Wild (one goal, two points in 19 games), Brazeau has rekindled his scoring touch this year with Pittsburgh, potting six goals and 12 points in 12 games so far.
But with Brazeau’s scoring production in Boston dipping as the calendar flipped to March (10 goals in 57 games), the Bruins opted to flip the pending free agent to the Wild, with the top return thus far being shifty forward Marat Khusnutdinov.
After toiling around in more of a fourth-line role with Minnesota, Khusnutdinov’s speed and puck skills have allowed him to elevate in Boston’s lineup as a useful cog for Marco Sturm.
The 23-year-old center has helped Boston absorb the loss of 1C Elias Lindholm over the last few weeks, scoring three goals and two assists over the last eight games, including a key tally in Saturday’s win over Montreal.
During the 74:21 of 5-on-5 reps that the Geekie-Khusnutdinov-Pastrnak line has logged together this season, Boston is outscoring opponents, 4-2.
Khusnutdinov will likely be bumped back down the lineup once Lindholm returns, but the shifty Russian forward doesn’t look like a fourth-line grinder moving forward.
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### To Florida: Brad Marchand
### To Boston: 2027 First-Round Pick (after conditions met in 2025 playoffs)
The Bruins likely aren’t going to be “winning” this trade, not with Marchand playing an essential role in Florida’s run to a second-straight Stanley Cup title.
Boston does have another solid piece of draft capital to work with moving forward in Florida’s 2027 first-round pick, although that pick could eventually be pushed into a 2028 first-round pick if Florida’s 2027 selection ends up being a top-10 pick (as unlikely as that seems).
Ideally, the Bruins would have preferred having possession of Florida’s 2026 first-round pick given that the Panthers’ record so far this year has been relatively pedestrian (9-8-1), due to injuries to Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk.
If the Bruins do exceed expectations this season, one has to wonder if Sweeney and Co. view a 2027 first-round pick by Florida as an expendable trade chip if they try to add talent at the trade deadline or during the 2026-27 campaign.
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### To Colorado: Charlie Coyle, 2026 Fifth-Round Pick
### To Boston: Casey Mittelstadt, 2025 Second-Round Pick, Will Zellers
With a win-now Avs team desperate to add center depth behind Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado paid a premium to acquire both Brock Nelson and Coyle at the trade deadline.
Coyle posted 13 points in 17 games with Colorado during regular-season play but only scored one postseason goal as the Avs were bounced by Dallas in the first round of the 2025 playoffs.
With Colorado needing cap space, they ultimately traded Coyle to Columbus along with Miles Wood this summer.
While Coyle’s tenure in Colorado was short-lived, Boston took advantage of a seller’s market by adding a roster player in Mittelstadt, a 2025 second-round pick, and a promising prospect in Will Zellers for the 33-year-old Weymouth native.
After an underwhelming debut with Boston in 2024-25, Mittelstadt has been a solid playmaking option on the second line with Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson when healthy, posting nine points over 15 games.
Signed through the 2026-27 season at a $5.75 million cap hit, the 26-year-old Mittelstadt could either hold court as a solid middle-six option or serve as a potential trade chip if he continues to produce steadily.
With that 2025 second-round pick (61st overall), Boston selected left-shot defenseman Liam Pettersson, currently skating for the Vaxjo Lakers in the Swedish Hockey League’s Under-20 division.
But the crown jewel of this sizable return for Coyle might be Will Zellers, a 2024 third-round pick who has significantly impressed over the last two years.
After earning USHL Player of the Year honors in 2024-25 (44 goals, 71 points in 52 games with Green Bay), Zellers’s scoring touch translated well to college hockey.
He has been one of the top freshman scorers on a sixth-ranked North Dakota squad so far this year, lighting the lamp seven times and adding four assists across 12 games.
While Hagens has the makings of a legitimate top-six center, Zellers has the motor and shot to develop into a 20-goal regular as part of Boston’s next crop of talent.
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### To Toronto: Brandon Carlo
### To Boston: Fraser Minten, 2025 Fourth-Round Pick, 2026 Conditional First-Round Pick
Bruins fans banking on Boston getting involved in the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes after that six-game losing skid might have to adjust their expectations.
But could the Bruins be a competitive club this season and still secure a top-10 pick in a very deep 2026 NHL Draft? It could happen — largely due to what looks like a lopsided deal struck between the Bruins and Maple Leafs in March.
When the Bruins sent a former top-four stalwart in Carlo to the Leafs, it looked as though Boston and Toronto were heading in opposite directions. That sentiment might have flipped just 20 games into this new season.
While the 12-8-0 Bruins currently sit atop the Atlantic Division, the Maple Leafs are just two points away from last place in the entire Eastern Conference.
Already hampered by the offseason departure of a top playmaker in Mitch Marner, Toronto’s defense and goaltending have seemingly imploded this year, ranking 31st in goals allowed per game (3.79).
Anthony Stolarz (.884 save percentage) has regressed in net, Auston Matthews is banged up, and Carlo has not fit the bill as a true shutdown option for Toronto’s thin defensive corps.
Even if it remains to be seen whether Toronto is destined for a top-10 pick this season, the Leafs don’t have many options to break this spiral given years of “win-now” moves have saddled them with a barren prospect pipeline and few available draft picks to trade for reinforcements.
As of Sunday, current odds on Tankathon have the 8-9-2 Maple Leafs landing the No. 6 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, which would transfer to Boston.
The sixth pick would be the best-case scenario for the Bruins, as the 2026 first-rounder is top-five protected for Toronto.
Even if Toronto rights the ship somewhat, the Bruins are still well positioned to add another top prospect to their system in June as a direct result of a difficult season for Toronto, even if that first-rounder lands in the teens.
Boston also added an intriguing defenseman in Vashek Blanar with Toronto’s 2025 fourth-round pick. The 6-foot-5 blueliner showcased some of his playmaking poise during Development Camp this summer.
The Toronto trade is also paying direct dividends for the current Bruins team, as 21-year-old Fraser Minten is already looking the part of a middle-six stalwart moving forward.
A favorite of Marco Sturm already, Minten’s two-way acumen has made him a Swiss Army Knife for Boston, while his chemistry with Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic has turned Boston’s third line into a matchup nightmare.
The case can be made that a one-for-one swap of Carlo for Minten is already looking like a win for the Bruins—especially over the next few years.
If an overachieving Bruins team somehow also lands another blue-chip prospect in the 2026 NHL Draft thanks to Toronto, this deal could be a fleecing.
https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-bruins/2025/11/16/boston-bruins-trade-toronto-maple-leafs-nhl-hockey-returns-fraser-minten-carlo-don-sweeney/
