The Boston Bruins’ crease will look a little different for the 2026-27 season, and that seems to be the only guaranteed part of the lineup as it’s currently constructed.
On July 1, the Bruins shipped out goaltender Joonas Korpisalo for a fourth-round pick and a minor-league forward. The move frees up the NHL backup role, and Don Sweeney pointed to Michael DiPietro as the primary reason why the trade happened.
“Yeah, primarily why,” the Bruins GM said when asked a few hours after the trade. “We just feel that Michael has earned this opportunity, and he comes in, not that Michael is ever going to worry about looking over his shoulder to say the truth. It’s just a real good opportunity for him now to come in and take the last two years in particular and apply it to the National Hockey League.
You’re never going to know unless you get that opportunity, and at some point in time, the team has to provide it.”
Sweeney honed in on the last two years specifically, which were the two best of DiPietro’s career. He set a career-high with 26 AHL wins in 2024-25, finished with a 2.05 goals against average (GAA) and a .927 save percentage (SV%). He won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Trophy for the best AHL goaltender.
That summer, DiPietro signed a two-year deal with the Bruins with a cap hit of $812,500. DiPietro was a pending Group 6 UFA and had been generating interest