Is the Bruins’ next No. 1 center already in their system?

F1 São Paulo GP 2026 – Practice 3

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Is the Bruins’ next No. 1 center already in their system?

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Thu, May 7, 2026 ·

4 min read

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BOSTON — Identifying the problem was easy. The Bruins don't have a true No. 1 center and they know it.

Not since Patrice Bergeron retired has the franchise had an elite, point-producing pivot who can drive a top line.

Solving the problem is a tougher challenge. Centers of that caliber rarely reach the open market. There's nobody who could accurately be classified as a 1C that will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Trading for an established one isn't easy either. Somebody has to be willing to trade one and it requires a hefty return.

The Bruins mixed and matched throughout 2025-26. Elias Lindholm was in and out of the top line several times. Fraser Minten , Pavel Zacha and Marat Khusnutdinov had stints there, but nobody locked it down.

The best path to getting a No. 1 is developing one if a team has the right guy. Do the Bruins? It's too early to tell, but in 19-year-old James Hagens and 21-year-old Fraser Minten, they have two players with potential.

"I think they both have that skill set. They're both a little different players," Bruins president Cam Neely said on Wednesday. "(Minten) is more like Bergy as far as a 200-foot player and maybe doesn't see the ice as well as Hagens does. "Hagens' head is up all the time, he's constantly looking to distribute."

Hagens was a center when the Bruins drafted him No. 7 overall in the 2025 draft. But he moved to the wing as a sophomore at Boston College, a move that helped him score more goals for the Eagles.

He stayed on the wing in his first five NHL games. But part of what made him such a highly-touted prospect going into the draft was his vision and playmaking at center. At some point, the Bruins will give him a long look back in the middle.

"I do like him. I want to see him at one point, probably as a center," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. "He does have potential, but it's just, he's just not there yet. I think it's great for him now learning the game as a winger, and then, we have to see moving forward where it's going to go."

General manager Don Sweeney said there can be a natural progression from getting comfortable in the NHL on the wing before moving to center.

"James will get a chance in the middle of the ice," he said. "The entry point's a little easier on the wing, as we've always talked about. So it sometimes has to be by committee, and hopefully you grow and you strike oil."

As Neely said, Minten's profile is closer to Bergeron's. When the Bruins acquired him in the trade for Brandon Carlo , Minten arrived in Boston with a reputation as a promising defensive forward with a strong 200-foot game and a high hockey I.Q. He lived up to the projection in his first full season in the NHL and put up 17 goals and 18 assists.

Sweeney liked his maturity, especially how he handled spending time on the Bruins first line alongside David Pastrnak .

"Fraser spent some time up in that spot, which is not an easy spot to play in," Sweeney said. "You're seeing a hell of a lot harder matchups. You're playing with a star player, and you're trying to navigate at times. He did a good job.

So there's a progression. People originally described Fraser as one player. Why put a ceiling there?" Sweeney said. "We'll see what he's going to do. Bergy wasn't necessarily described as the Hall of Fame player that he became when he first started out of the gate."

Minten said his goals weren't connected to which line he was on.

"Just trying to be the guy that makes those playoff games, helping the team move on past the first round and keep going," Minten said. "Just be a guy who can help teams win."

Neely said optimism is high for both players.

"Whether they either become number one centers is up to them," he said. "We want to give these guys every opportunity to take a job that's staring at them. We all in this room recognize we don't have a true number one and that's something that we want to try to rectify, whether it's this offseason or those guys growing into it. But it's something that we know that's needed."

F1 São Paulo GP 2026 – Practice 3

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