The Boston Bruins are entering the 2025-26 campaign with a blank slate of sorts. With no players from their 2011 championship team remaining, a new era of hockey is set to be ushered in by this team, and that’s something that Charlie McAvoy is embracing ahead of the new season.
Ever since breaking in with the Bruins in the 2017-18 season, McAvoy has been a key piece of the team’s plans, as he’s emerged as one of the top defensemen in the league. With guys like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Brad Marchand no longer with the team, he finds himself in a new sort of leadership role with the team.
As an alternate captain alongside David Pastrnak, McAvoy is going to be tasked with helping lead Boston’s next championship contender. While he admitted that the team is undergoing some changes currently, McAvoy is excited to use what he learned from the B’s prior leadership core when it comes to building the team’s new culture.
“I think we’re going through a time now where we’re trying to rebuild the culture, which will be built on the things that those guys taught us,” McAvoy said of the Bruins on “32 Thoughts: The Podcast.” “It’s just different from when I came in, there’s really no way around that.”
Expectations for the Bruins in the new campaign are a bit murky. There’s no doubt they failed to meet expectations last year, so while they should improve, it remains to be seen what their ceiling will end up being.
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Keeping guys like McAvoy on the ice after the team dealt with a slew of injuries last year would certainly help. It’s deeper than that, though, and with McAvoy helping build a new culture in Boston, there’s reason to believe this team could reemerge as a playoff contender sooner than initially expected.
