Stat Hockey’s Boston Bruins 2023-24 Line Projections

This is a look at the Boston Bruins 2023-24 line projections. It will cover all forward lines, defense pairings, goaltenders, and scratches.

Projected Lineup

F

Brad Marchand – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak

Trent Frederic – Charlie Coyle – Jake DeBrusk

James van Riemsdyk – Morgan Geekie – Jakub Lauko

Milan Lucic – Jesper Boqvist – AJ Greer

S- Patrick Brown, Alex Chiasson

D

Matt Grzelcyk – Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo

Derek Forbort – Kevin Shattenkirk

S- Jakub Zboril

G

Linus Ullmark

Jeremy Swayman

Forwards

The Bruins’ top line has sometimes featured their three best players, while they’ve also liked to spread the scoring around a bit. What I’m thinking is they start off hot and load up the top line. Zacha will have to take over the top line center spot while Marchand and Pastrnak are top line talents and will lead the team. Even if the rest of the forward group suffers, this line will get goals and dominate five-on-five.

Coyle has to move up to the top-six and center the second line. He is paid like a top-six player, but has been comfortable in his role on the third line until now. This will be an unpredictable line as DeBrusk is getting better and Frederic had somewhat of a breakout last season. With these two young and talented wingers, this line will be able to produce, but maybe not at the level of their opponents’ second lines. This will probably cause some line shuffling.

The third line is where the Bruins start to look very concerning. It is a mix of veterans who are well past their primes and young players who haven’t broken out yet, and might not. Geekie comes in as potentially the best talent on the third line, but van Riemsdyk should be able to provide some offense. Defense might be an issue, and Lauko is pretty fresh into the NHL to be taking on a role like he is. I could see him being interchangeable with Greer or even Chiasson if he has a good camp and earns a contract.

The fourth line is going to be mostly an energy and hitting line meant to wear down the opponents. Lucic and Greer will make sure of that. While I don’t think Lucic would be playing the majority of the games this season on many teams, the Bruins have minimal depth and he will likely end up getting in 75-plus games. Boqvist should get into more games than Brown, but in the end, they should both get at least 50 games in this season somewhere in the bottom-six.

Defense

While the forward group got a lot worse, the defense didn’t take too hard of a hit. Sure, they lost Dmitry Orlov and Connor Clifton, but they also had too many defensemen that should have been in the lineup. Their depth is just fine with Zboril, Ian Mitchell, and Alec Regula, so they should still keep pucks out of their net despite losing two great two-way centers.

McAvoy is one of the best defensemen in the league and will be one of the staples defensively for the team. Same goes with Lindholm on the second pair. It would be best if they split the two up even though they play opposite sides. It only boosts Grzelcyk and Carlo, who are solid in their own right.

Related: Stat Hockey’s Arizona Coyotes 2023-24 Line Projections

While Forbort is very solid defensively, Shattenkirk can still provide offense from the third pairing. This is still a deep back-end who will have to play a big part in getting the team back to the postseason.

Goaltending

Goaltending should also still be solid as Ullmark and Swayman arguably make up the best tandem in the league. While Ullmark had a Vezina-winning season, Swayman still put up very good numbers. Ullmark’s .938 save percentage will be nearly impossible to replicate after the losses to the lineup, so a 50/50 split is very likely this season. Swayman even has a decent chance of earning more starts. Along with the defense, this is an area of strength and has to pull the team up.