But this time, fresh off first-round playoff elimination in April, the circumstances and talent pool are substantially different.

Opening night five months away, the Bruins stand on the verge of a critical, youth-oriented roster infusion, the likes of which they haven’t undergone since Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov came walking through that Spoked-B dressing room door in October 1997.

Matt Grzelcyk, Danton Heinen, and Jake DeBrusk (29) are pictured as they take the ice for the start of an AHL playoff game on May 11.

Unlike 20 years ago, it’s not a moribund, floundering franchise. It is not in need of — or in possession of — ballyhooed prospects such as Thornton and Samsonov to revive the brand and resurrect a ravaged season-ticket base.

Instead, now six years removed for their Stanley Cup win, the Bruins are a mid-pack NHL performer, with core players such as Zdeno Chara (40 years old), David Backes (33), Patrice Bergeron (31), David Krejci (31), and even Tuukka Rask (30) all with high mileage and a few replacement parts.


It is now a franchise at an inflection point: its older core players holding their own or in decline, and its seemingly deep reservoir of prospects, including a smattering of first-round picks such as the tantalizing Charlie McAvoy, in need of seizing the moment.

Their prospects are many. But are they players ready to contribute, to lead, to show up on Causeway Street as vital Black and Gold contributors?

“Well, you’re trying to merge,” general manager Don Sweeney said the other day in his office at TD Garden. “I think [the] point is well made that, when you are talking about windows and players that can carry the load . . . the [veterans] are going to have to be supported. And our younger players . . . can we accelerate it? . . . I don’t know.”

Integrating some of those prospects to the varsity roster likely will determine if Sweeney and Co. can jump-start the Bruins as a bona fide contender, or remain stuck mid-pack in a 31-team league, each season struggling to make the playoff cut. In an NHL that increasingly admits it is both a development league and the world’s top hockey entity, the Bruins are hardly alone in their quest to bring in kids, though it often means enduring the quirks and consequences of growing pains.


Sweeney, for his part, buys into the kids mantra, all the while maintaining what he calls an “excited but tempered” posture about the size and significance of the surge.

“In all honesty, it’s to be determined,” said Sweeney, now just more than two years on the job after succeeding the cashiered Peter Chiarelli. “We are trying to find out who can impact. It’s great to be committed to younger players, but they have to be good enough to impact your NHL lineup. The process that we’ve been committed to, we’re not going to deviate from, but we’re also going to be very cognizant of the fact the [player] sets the time line.”

Ergo, if some of the top prospects indeed prove ready in October, then it will be in with the new and out with . . . ?

That, too, is to be determined.

End of the line?

It’s highly improbable that the likes of, say, Jimmy Hayes, John-Michael Liles, perhaps even Dominic Moore, an impactful and cost-effective unrestricted free agent signing last summer, will be back in 2017-18. Matt Beleskey, though seemingly protected by his rich (read: overpriced) contract, also could be on the endangered list. Ryan Spooner is young and effective in defined roles, but his contract renewal could be too pricey. Deadline acquisition Drew Stafford, who will be 32 in October, provided a tiny bit of pop but is an unrestricted free agent and likely not a high-priority signing here. Backup goalie Anton Khudobin played well down the stretch. However, the role of Rask’s second remains a primary concern — one Sweeney is adamant about “locking down” prior to training camp.


Anton Khudobin earned the win in six of his final eight starts of the season. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

“If it’s the Anton who played [against the Islanders] and in Chicago, I don’t think anyone would move on from him,” said Sweeney, referring to Khudobin’s best work down the stretch. “We’re going to continue to explore. If an absolutely definable guy comes in to support Tuukka . . . ”

Factoring in the conventional wisdom that the Bruins will lose defenseman Adam McQuaid or Kevan Miller in the Vegas expansion draft next month, the math is obvious: a half-dozen jobs or more will be there for the taking. Team president Cam Neely also said recently that he doubts the club will be active come the start of free agency July 1, an added sign that the franchise will rely on youth.

“I don’t think younger players can be thrown to the wolves and lead your team,” cautioned Sweeney. “I don’t believe that. I think they need to be supported by people that can carry the load.”

Coming of age

Sweeney in 2015, after a failed attempt to trade high into draft’s first round, made a record three consecutive picks at Nos. 13 (Jakub Zboril), 14 (Jake DeBrusk), and 15 (Zach Senyshyn). None of them has yet to reach the NHL. Of the three, though, DeBrusk, now the top scoring threat with AHL Providence, is probably the closest, and also among a pack of 6-8 prime prospects who will vie for the varsity in September.


Zboril, a puck-moving defenseman with some edge, has yet to enter the pro ranks. He is finishing his junior career in the Quebec League, his club (Saint John Sea Dogs) playing in the Memorial Cup.

“You could drop him into an NHL game today and he wouldn’t look out of place at all,” said Sweeney. “Could he sustain that over a full season? That’s what we’re going to work on.”

Zboril’s trajectory has him pegged for Providence next season.

Senyshyn, a winger with blazing speed, put up 65 points in 59 games in his final year of junior (Sault Ste. Marie), and finished with 40-plus goals in each of his last two years in the OHL. He joined the Baby B’s just as they started the playoffs, where they are now in a second-round series with Hershey.

In 64 regular-season games for Providence, Danton Heinen collected 14-30—44. Jim Davis/Globe Staff

“He’s getting his feet on the ground as a pro,” said John Ferguson Jr., whose role in Boston’s front office includes GM duties in Providence. “Excellent speed. He is long [6 feet 3 inches] and he’s fast and has a good shot. Now he’ll have to round it all out.”

Senyshyn also is likely to begin next season in Providence.


“We don’t tell any of these kids they can’t make it,” said Sweeney. “Did they think, way back to when Patrice [Bergeron] walked in, that he’d make the lineup here at 18?”

DeBrusk and fellow forward Danton Heinen, who initially made the varsity roster last October, are the club’s two AHL forwards with the best chance to be promoted to Boston.

“The details of Jake’s game are pretty good,” said Providence coach Kevin Dean. “A lot of times, a guy who comes out of junior who’s scored a lot of goals, that’s not the case. But right out of the gate, that wasn’t a huge lag for him. He really impressed me with his ability to hang on to the puck in the offensive zone against bigger men.”

Heinen won a job straight out of college (Denver) last September but soon came up short in battles along the boards and in fights for the puck. Following a dip when first assigned to Providence, he came on strong over the second half.

“Our last series [vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton], he had three goals that were absolute snipes,” said Dean. “Perfect shots. All wrist shots from the slot.”

Making a push

Sean Kuraly, also with Providence in the playoffs, scored the double-OT winner for Boston in Game 5 of the playoffs vs. Ottawa. He, too, would be a prime candidate to land full-time work among the forwards next season in Boston.

Ex-Boston University center Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Sweeney believes, is ready for the NHL. The 20-year-old, like former Terrier teammate McAvoy, left school in March to turn pro.

Another dynamic prospect, Anders Bjork, is currently slated to return to Notre Dame for his senior season. Sweeney continues to try to convince the winger to turn pro, convinced that he also can play in Boston next season. If he doesn’t sign, Bjork can play his senior season in South Bend and enter the league as an unrestricted free agent in August 2018.

“He could be a big part of our whole group of guys,” said Sweeney. “I think with the speed and ability he has, he can step into the lineup.”

On defense, McAvoy, the playoff wunderkind, would seem a lock on the Boston back line. He played an average 26:11 in six playoff games, and for the most part looked like a seasoned pro at age 19.

Sweeney, though, fully anticipates McAvoy, now with Team USA at the World Championship, will experience some bumps in the road next season — not unlike Brandon Carlo did during his overall impressive 2016-17 season at the same age. McAvoy, said Sweeney, will have to acclimate as a full-time pro, adding more rigorous offseason training to adapt to playing upward of potentially 100 games a season.

Charlie McAvoy played an average 26:11 in six playoff games. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

“Are we very excited about the talent and the skill set he brings? No question,” added Sweeney of McAvoy. “He has that I-want-to-be-in-the-moment type of charisma, and that’s something we’re missing.”

With Zboril likely slated for Providence next season, along with Jeremy Lauzon (No. 52 in 2015), the two other prime back-line candidates for Boston will be ex-collegians Rob O’Gara (Yale) and Matt Grzelcyk (BU). Both had brief stays in Boston (total five games), but otherwise spent the full season in Providence as first-year pros.

McAvoy, chosen in the first round last June, stands to join Carlo as the second top-four blue liner added to the roster in as many seasons. Carlo was taken in the Zboril-DeBrusk-Senyshyn draft (2015), but as the 37th pick. Carlo and Carolina’s Sebastian Aho (No. 35) were the only two non-first-round picks from 2015 to play all 82 games this season.

“Are people saying we should have taken him among our first three picks?” mused Sweeney, reflecting on the 2015 draft. “Well, maybe. If we definably thought he was going to be this good. But again, the player determines that to some degree. We’re just happy about the collection — and now the opportunity will be there.

“Now we find out, who’s good enough to play?”

Don Sweeney (right) and coach Bruce Cassidy during a news conference after the Bruins’ season ended. Winslow Townson for The Boston Globe/Globe Freelance

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.