The Boston Bruins just sent a warning to two players leading up to the 2025-26 season
Photo credit: Athlon Sport
The Boston Bruins organization just sent a warning to two players leading into the 2025-26 season.
When the Boston Bruins signed both Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov in the off-season to long-term deals, there was some high expectations.
The Bruins expected Lindholm to be the new number one center for the organization replacing Patrice Bergeron. Zadorov was brought in to beef up the Bruins blue line and he did just that.
Lindholm got off to a super slow start with the Boston Bruins, and it wasn't revealed until after the season on why. He revealed that he suffered a back injury before training camp began. Zadorov ended up bringing a much needed physical play to the Bruins blue line, and lead the team and league with 145 penalty minutes.
Down the stretch, Lindholm started to find his grove with the Boston Bruins finishing the season with 17 goals, and 30 assists. Zadorov ended up finishing the year being a plus-25 and picking up 22 points.
Don Sweeney sends a warning
When speaking on both players, General manager Don Sweeney stated that he sees better seasons from both of them, and that they need to be better.
«Elias got out of the gate slowly with an injury, as did several of our players, didn't develop chemistry early on that we had hoped with David (Pastrnak). Late in the season, went back to play with him and played very well there,» Sweeney said at the Bruins' end-of-season media availability Wednesday at TD Garden. «So that's the hope that a player that can take a lion's share of harder match-ups, but still can produce.»
Sweeney continued: «He lost confidence in his shooting, in the bumper, and our power play was not very effective during the course of the season. All players go through that adjustment coming to a new city. There's a bunch of things, those aren't excuses. He didn't offer one single excuse. He didn't use the injury as an excuse.
«He still had a reasonable offensive year. It's not what we had hoped, what we expected, and we expect it to be higher. He actually had more points than he had the previous year. But again, that's not what we had hoped for.»
Sweeney continued: «He lost confidence in his shooting, in the bumper, and our power play was not very effective during the course of the season. All players go through that adjustment coming to a new city. There's a bunch of things, those aren't excuses. He didn't offer one single excuse. He didn't use the injury as an excuse.
«He still had a reasonable offensive year. It's not what we had hoped, what we expected, and we expect it to be higher. He actually had more points than he had the previous year. But again, that's not what we had hoped for.»
Zadorov had a different start to his start with the Boston Bruins.
«In Nikita's case, he came in and was very rambunctious to start the year and took a lot of penalties as a result of it, put himself behind the eight ball,» Sweeney said. «If you look at him statistically, at his point totals. Raw statistics we don't really look at - plus/minus - all that much from the standpoint of performance. But it is an indicator when good things are happening on the ice versus when bad things are happening on the ice. And he led our team in a significant margin there.
«He stood up for a lot of players. There was a lot of opportunities during the course of the year where other teams tried to exert their will and they had a tough time. So, I don't think it should be lost on any of us that he brought some of that to the table.»
«He stood up for a lot of players. There was a lot of opportunities during the course of the year where other teams tried to exert their will and they had a tough time. So, I don't think it should be lost on any of us that he brought some of that to the table.»
Don Sweeney expects both of these players to heavily improve their games next season, especially with how their play picked up after the NHL trade deadline.
«Ultimately, when we integrate those guys in there, you want immediate impact,» he said. «But they started to grow into their roles, understanding how they're going to impact our team going forward. And we need to do a better job surrounding them.»
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 24 | 149 ANSWERS The Boston Bruins just sent a warning to two players leading up to the 2025-26 season Do you think both players will be better next season after being sent a warning? | ||
| Yes | 104 | 69.8 % |
| No | 45 | 30.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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