The NHL offseason is in full swing and teams are starting to make trades, hand out contract extensions, and are preparing for the two biggest events this offseason- the 2026 NHL Draft and Free Agency. This year’s draft will take place on Friday and Saturday at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., where Boston will have eight selections. Free Agency begins on July 1. Boston has signed forward Lukas Reichel, forward Navrin Mutter (two-way), and goalie Simon Zajicek (two-way) to one-year extensions as well as signed Swiss forward Attilio Biasca through 2027-28. As for trades, the organization has only made one so far this offseason which was sending the rights to forward Andre Gasseau to the San Jose Sharks as well as a fourth-round pick (No. 120) in exchange for a fourth round (No. 104) and fifth round (No. 157) pick in this year’s draft. On Wednesday, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney spoke to the media about making moves, the draft, and free agency. “It’s been busy, obviously around the league and chatter and I don't think the transactions are going to stop between now and the timeframe in July, so we're eager to be participating,” said Sweeney. “Haven't yet. I guess we did with Gasseau, but there's been a lot of chatter so I expect things to continue [with] our player movement and stuff heading into the draft to be busy.” — Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) June 24, 2026Boston has two pending free agents this year in forward Viktor Arvidsson and defenseman Andrew Peeke. Sweeney provided a small update on how talks were going as free agency inches closer. “I'm going to be vague because I don't share details in that sense, other than it's been mutually very respectful,” said Sweeney. “I think there's interest for both sides, just haven't found an agreeable term and AAV. So that's a simple fact. Ultimately, in a perfect world, they'd be already done because we have expressed interest in both, but there's obviously a disagreement because you haven't signed the players and that's my job to find a way to balance that out. And if not, you have to execute a trade that fills a hole because they were both important players, in referencing just the two that you asked, they were both important players for us.” Sweeney spoke on the RFA qualifying offer deadline and stated that most of the players will be qualified, however did not go into detail on which would or would not be. “Yeah, they're due [at] the end of the month on the 29th,” said Sweeney. “We've got that list. I've had communication with all the agents in terms of where that sits right now, that can sometimes change right up until the final day or there will be a couple guys that won't be, but the vast majority will be qualified.” Every RFA has been told whether or not they will be extended a qualifying offer by the deadline. Sweeney was asked if that includes 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell, and he would not confirm or deny.— Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) June 24, 2026He emphasized the importance of adding and getting better and would consider trading players on the current roster. “Yeah, I think everything has to be on the table this time of the year,” said Sweeney. “Ultimately, our goal is to improve now moving forward and having depth in positions or having, as I said, maybe it's a younger player that's able to grow into to a role in situation as we did with, as I referenced earlier, both Fraser [Minten] and Marat [Khusnutdinov]. So we may need to identify the next one. And sometimes that's a half a step back for two steps forward and that just might be what the deal represents. And we'll be open-minded about that, but we have to live in all those spaces. We just do. And I'm not promising, but I do believe we're trying to do a little bit of both.” Sweeney also shared that the plan is to extend forward Pavel Zacha as he enters his final year on his deal. “My goal is to extend Pav,” said Sweeney. “He had a really good year, he's an important player for us. If you ask Marco [Sturm], he'd say the same thing, how important he is... He's a big part of our team.” Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram for the latest Boston Bruins news.