The Bruins took care of a small bit of business on Thursday, signing forward Riley Duran to a one-year, two-way extension with an NHL cap hit of $850,000.
In his first full pro season, the 24-year-old Woburn native, who played at Providence College scored seven goals and added 12 assists and had a plus-19 rating with the Providence Bruins.
After a tremendous regular season but yet another first round flame-out, there has been quite a bit of turnover on the Providence roster. With the Duran signing, there are currently nine forwards under contract in Providence, though the current Boston roster has 14 under contract and one could be sent down by the end of the training camp. The B’s also need to find a new coach for Providence after Ryan Mougenel left to take an NHL assistant job with Vancouver Canucks.
Whether the B’s add to their varsity roster or not, they’ve still got plenty of work to do.
They have one remaining RFA to sign in Matt Poitras. The 22-year-old center made the Boston roster in 2023-24 as a 19-year-old junior player and had a promising start to his career but was susceptible to big hits. Eventually, he suffered a major shoulder injury that required surgery to correct, ending his rookie season after 33 games.
Poitras scuffled a bit in his second season and was eventually sent down to Providence, where he had 17-24-41 in 40 games. Last season, he struggled adapting to the new man/zone hybrid defensive system in training camp and was sent back to Providence for all but three games. But while his scoring was down last year (13-31–44 in 69 games in Providence), his all-around game improved quite a bit. It is time to give him another long look at the NHL level.
There is also the conundrum that is the Pavel Zacha situation. As he goes into the final year of his contract, his marriage with the Bruins has been a happy one. He was obtained by the B’s in a trade for Erik Haula in the summer of 2022 with one year left on his contract. He was subsequently signed by the B’s to a four-year deal worth an average annual value of $4.75 million. It turned out to be an excellent contract for the B’s as Zacha was a consistent, durable performer. Last season, he enjoyed career highs with 30-35-65 totals, playing primarily on a line with Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson — the B’s best, most consistent line that no one saw coming.
Boston Bruins center Pavel Zacha levels Dallas Stars center Wyatt Johnston as the Bruins take on the Stars at TD Garden this past season. (staff photo by Stuart Cahill/MNG)
Now, for Zacha, it’s time to get paid. Considering how much the B’s like both the player and the person, the fact that an extension is not done yet doesn’t bode well for a deal getting done. One has to wonder if the B’s see him fitting into the timeline with some of the young centers in the pipeline, including Fraser Minten, James Hagens, Poitras and Dean Letourneau, who could be knocking at the door once Boston College’s season is done next spring.
And Zacha no doubt saw what Alex Tuch got ($10.5 million for eight years after Washington obtained his rights from Buffalo) and rightly figured he’s got a pretty good pay day ahead of him.
But if they’re not going to sign Zacha, they can’t afford to let him walk for nothing next July 1. So when do they trade him? They didn’t move him at the draft, where they might have been able to recoup some of the draft capital they spent in obtaining J.J. Peterka (their 23rd overall pick and Florida’s first rounder in 2028).
The current CBA is ending on Sept. 15, and with it the ability for a team to offer eight years to their own players, which could be – theoretically, at least – a means to keep the AAV down for the B’s or any team interested in acquiring Zacha.
Or do the B’s hold on to Zacha until next season’s trade deadline? It may be easy to say “we’ll just cash in next March” now in July, but it could be a lot more difficult to do when they’re in the heat of a playoff race. It’s not unheard of, however. The Hurricanes moved Mikko Rantanen and wound up with a young Logan Stankoven at the 2025 deadline. Stankoven and the Canes are currently enjoying a Stanley Cup summer.
Zacha is not the only concern. Both Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov are going into the final years of their contracts and will both be RFAs next summer, which in the past meant there was no rush to get anything done. But times have changed in the NHL. It’s become a lot less gentlemanly off the ice.
That much was clear when the Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy and then blocked him from getting another head coaching job, something they were legally entitled to do as he was still under contract for one more season. But it was not the way things were done in the past.
But more germane to the Minten-Khusnutdinov situation was the mammoth five-year, $18 million offer sheet Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson signed with the Philadelphia Flyers. Anaheim matched on Thursday, but the roster has been thrown into chaos for Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek, who still has to sign RFA Cutter Gauthier and will need to sell off pieces to do so. Offer sheets are now a threat that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and every other GM in the league has to be aware of.
It is best to take care of your own business in a timely fashion now.