Don Sweeney showed up to Day One of Bruins training camp with a surprise. It was not the good kind.
Sweeney told the media that star winger David Pastrnak will not skate with the team in the opening days of training camp due to “a little tendinitis.”
“David Pastrnak won’t skate for the first couple of days,” Sweeney said. “His last training block, he got a little tendinitis. And we as a group just said, load management at this point in time is what’s the best course of action.”
Sweeney added that Pastrnak will be skating separately with John McClean, Boston’s skating and skills coach, and is expected to participate in full team practice “early next week.”
The 29-year-old Pastrnak is entering his 12th season with the Bruins. He did not miss a single regular-season game over the past three campaigns, topping 100 points all three times. He set a career high with 63 assists in 2023-24 and matched that total a year ago. He led the Bruins with 43 goals last season, 10 more than second-ranked Morgan Geekie, and his 63 assists were 30 more than Pavel Zacha, who ranked second on the team with 33.
Pastrnak kept busy after Boston missed the postseason in the spring, leading all skaters with 15 points (6-9-15) in eight games for Czechia during the IIHF World Championships in May.
Pastrnak remains Boston’s best offensive player, yet Sweeney sees the early absence at training camp as a potential positive for new head coach Marco Sturm.
“Good opportunity for Marco to put a couple of other guys in the cat bird’s seat that they would be excited to have,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney said that Pastrnak was his only “surprise” and that all other players are “fully up and running.”
A few other nuggets from Sweeney’s press conference that stood out:
When asked about Joonas Korpisalo saying at the end of last season that he’d prefer more playing time, Sweeney said the team will make plans for goaltender workload based on various factors designed on optimizing player performance and health: “We’re gonna plan accordingly, but performance is gonna dictate how our team makes the ultimate decisions between Marco and [goaltender coach Bob Essensa].”
After Jeremy Swayman famously missed last year’s training camp while waiting to get his contract, Sweeney offered a sarcastic comment on the goaltender’s presence this year: “I thanked Jeremy today for his attendance and was very appreciative of it.”
The Bruins do not have any players in on professional tryouts to open camp, instead opting to put players currently in the organization in different situations and assessing what they have.
Sweeney expressed confidence that the Bruins will be competitive, but he noted they’ll have to “produce by committee” and will need better defense, better goaltending, and an improved power play.
Former longtime captain Zdeno Chara remains involved with the organization, and Sweeney said the team anticipates announcing his exact role “in the near future.” Chara, who captained the Bruins from 2006 through 2020, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November.