Bruins centers ready to carry load down stretch drive

BOSTON -- For the centers on the Boston Bruins -- for Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie, in particular -- this season, from the offseason to the preseason to the lead-up to the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, has been a push-pull of emotions.

On the one hand, they always welcome help that would make their team better, that would get them closer to the Stanley Cup the team believes it could have won last season.

On the other hand, they want to believe they’re enough.

“We all want to do the job,” Coyle said. “We all want to play as best we can so we can be that person for that position. That’s definitely the mindset, 100 percent it is. You don’t want to come off cocky or too confident, but that’s what you want, that’s what makes you a competitor and an athlete. You never want to give up your position.”

They won’t have to. Even as the Bruins were linked to some high-profile center names, like Elias Lindholm -- both before and after he was traded from the Calgary Flames to the Vancouver Canucks -- they opted not to add to their center depth, instead remaining mostly pat at before the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday.

The Bruins made two small moves at the deadline, acquiring injured forward Pat Maroon from the Minnesota Wild for forward Luke Toporowski and a sixth-round conditional pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, and defenseman Andrew Peeke from the Columbus Blue Jackets for defenseman Jakub Zboril and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

Which means they will head into their game on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden (3 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, TVAS) and beyond with the centers they started with.

“I actually give our centers a lot of credit,” general manager Don Sweeney said. “Charlie’s gone into an elevated [position], ‘Zachs’ has gone into an elevated [position], Geekie. You look at the point production those guys have had.

“I think the collection of the group, we knew was going to have to be by committee. But I tell you, they’ve come in and done a pretty good job. We have depth there. It’s going to get tested, for sure.”

This was always going to be a transitional season for the Bruins, having lost the two centers they had relied upon for most of the past decade and a half as their one-two punch, with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci each opting to retire in the offseason. That left the Bruins with Coyle and Zacha to fill the roles, along with newly signed free agent Geekie, and a rotating cast of Matt Poitras and fourth liners like Jesper Boqvist and Johnny Beecher.

It would have to be sufficient.

“Taking such a big loss after the last season, I think no one believed that we could fill the holes,” Zacha said. “Charlie Coyle’s been doing a great job. Morgan Geekie took a big step this year too. … As far as this season goes, I think we’re getting better with getting comfortable with more ice time and stuff like that.

“We know we’re not Bergeron or Krejci, but I think that’s something that we’re working on. And the closer we get to those guys, the better we’re going to be for the team.”

And, as Coyle noted, there’s still room to grow, even three-quarters of the way through the season.

“I think we’ve done a decent job,” Coyle said. “You don’t get complacent. You can always improve, right? You never want to be like, ‘Aw, we’re doing great, we’re doing awesome.’ You always want to push more. And there’s always more you can do and things you can tighten up and learn. It’s a long season.”

Through a season in which the Bruins (37-13-15) have remained near or at the top of the NHL, the results have been mostly positive, mostly better than anticipated. Coyle is having a career season, sitting five points away from his career high of 56, which he scored in 2016-17 for the Minnesota Wild. He has 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists) in 65 games, with the 21 goals already matching his NHL career best from 2015-16.

“People just cast the guy into a third-line role,” Sweeney said. “That’s not necessarily everything he’s capable of doing. He’s showed that this year. I think Zacha’s done the same thing. And Morgan has. We hope it continues. I think we’ve gotten good production out of that group.”

Zacha has emerged as a steady, if not flashy, center. He has not quite mirrored his career 2022-23 season, in which he scored 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists) while playing both center and wing, but with 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists) in 61 games he’s not far off. And he’s heated up lately, scoring four points (three goals, one assist) in the three games since an injury scare on March 2 against the New York Islanders.

“I think it’s been good, especially with my two-way game,” Zacha said. “I think defensively I got even better than last year. I think chance-wise per game, I think I’m getting better there.”

And Geekie might be the hottest of them all. The free agent signee, who spent the past two seasons with the Seattle Kraken, has a career-high 32 points (15 goals, 17 assists) in 59 games, including five goals in his past five games.

Even so, they all knew the Bruins might be looking for a center. The word was out there.

“You think about different scenarios, but you don’t dwell on it,” Coyle said. “We like our team. If there’s pieces that can help our team get better, we’re all for it. But that’s the hard part of this business. You start with these guys beginning of the year, or some guys years and years, and you want to win with that team.

“But if there’s moves that make our team better, we’re all for it. We’re all team guys in here. But we want to make sure with what we’ve got right now to make sure we can get the job done -- and we know we can.”

Coyle rattled off the names of the half-a-dozen centers that have taken shifts for the Bruins this season.

“It’s just been a shared responsibility,” Coyle said. “And that’s what we need, with two guys of that caliber leaving. You can’t send two guys to replace them like that. You can’t do it. To have that help, all those guys come in and fill that role, has been awesome for us. It just shows the depth that we have in that position.

“Do we have two Hall of Fame guys here? No. But we have a shared responsibility and guys who get the job done.”