The Bruins slid in just ahead of the June 29, 5:00 p.m. qualifying‑offer deadline, releasing their list of players who received tenders under the league’s updated salary structure.
Under the new CBA framework, no qualifying offer can dip below $850,000, now the NHL’s minimum salary — an important baseline.
Qualifying offers remain active until July 15, but that date isn’t a hard cutoff for club control. Even if a player declines or simply doesn’t sign by the expiration, the team retains his rights, keeping the negotiation window open well beyond mid‑July.
The Bruins had already secured Lukas Reichel on a one‑year contract carrying a $950,000 AAV back on May 14. When that deal expires, he’ll remain a restricted free agent and will hold arbitration rights.
The Bruins also signed goaltender Simon Zajicek to a one-year, two-way contract extension on June 23 with an AAV of $850,000.
Fabian Lysell was obviously been traded at the draft on the weekend.
It should come as no surprise that the Bruins issued a qualifying offer to Matthew Poitras. The $850,000 tender was a necessary step to retain his rights, regardless of whether they ultimately keep or move him. The organization still believes in Poitras’ trajectory and has been encouraged by his progress in Providence, but if the right deal materializes — one that improves the roster now and strengthens the future — they won’t hesitate to explore it.
Ivan Ivan, brought in from Colorado as part of the Lysell deal, received a qualifying offer at $850,000 — exactly in line with what Don Sweeney telegraphed during Saturday’s media availability. From the outside, this profiles as a Providence‑leaning move, a depth piece to stabilize the organizational depth. But the Bruins aren’t closing the door on anything. Ivan will head into camp with a shot at carving out fourth‑line minutes, and the club believes his pace and competitiveness give him a chance to make that battle interesting.
Riley Duran, a sixth‑round pick in 2020, has always projected as a straight‑line, energy‑driven forward. His value comes from pace, pressure, and territorial play — when he’s over the boards, the puck tends to tilt toward the offensive zone, and his forechecking game has long been his calling card. The ceiling has remained consistent: a fourth‑line, penalty‑killing role player who can tilt shifts through effort and detail. But with the Bruins bringing in Ivan, the writing felt increasingly clear. After six years in the system, the acquisition looked like a signal that Duran’s runway in Boston had effectively run out. But the Bruins saw it differently and qualified him today.
Alexis Gendron, brought in from Philadelphia at the deadline, saw only limited action — ten regular‑season games and a single playoff appearance — after arriving in the organization. A seventh‑round pick in 2022, he flashed some intrigue in Lehigh Valley, but the Flyers’ prospect wave quickly pushed him down the depth chart. The deal itself was a swap of underperforming pieces, the kind of low‑risk maneuver both clubs were willing to entertain. And true to form, the Bruins leaned into what they’ve long valued: a reclamation project with tools worth exploring, even if the path forward remains uncertain. However, the Bruins did not qualify him.
Max Wanner arrived in the organization through a three‑team deal with New Jersey and Edmonton ahead of the 2025 deadline, but injuries kept the 2021 seventh‑rounder to just 29 games last season. A rangy, shutdown‑leaning defender by profile, he’s managed only 45 appearances for Providence since the trade, never truly getting a clean runway to show what he can be. Given Boston’s organizational need for defensemen at both the NHL and AHL levels, a qualifying offer wouldn’t have been surprising. I have expressed my doubts frequently about him and today the Bruins did not qualify him. .
Luke Cavallin, signed as a free agent last season, spent most of the year anchoring the crease in Maine before injuries up the ladder forced a call to Providence. He handled both assignments well, validating the organization’s decision to bring him in as depth insurance — a move that proved timely. With lingering uncertainty around the Bruins’ goaltending picture, Cavallin stood as a plausible candidate to return in a similar role. His performance suggested he could once again provide reliable coverage if Boston opted to keep that safety net in place and they did just that by qualifying him.
Jordan Harris, signed as a free agent last summer, never found consistent traction in Boston’s lineup. Injuries — and healthy scratches — limited him to just eight regular‑season games, though in that small window he showed enough poise to stay on the radar. His lone playoff appearance told a different story, one where the pace and pressure exposed some rough edges. With the Bruins facing a long list of questions on the back end this offseason, Harris doesn’t solve the top‑six puzzle. But he remains a credible depth option, the type of seventh‑or‑eighth defenseman who can stabilize the margins while the organization works through bigger decisions. But the Bruins chose a different path and did not qualify him.
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