Bruins Sign Jesper Boqvist To One-Year Contract

The Boston Bruins announced on Wednesday that they had signed unrestricted free agent Jesper Boqvist to a one-year, $775,000 contract.

Boqvist, 24, had ten goals and 11 assists in 70 games for the New Jersey Devils this past season. Boqvist was drafted in the second round (36th overall) of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot 180-pound forward played the first four seasons of his NHL career for the Devils and had 28 goals, and 27 assists in 189 games with New Jersey.

Boqvist became an unrestricted free agent when the Devils didn’t issue a qualifying offer to him. However, he will still be a restricted free agent when this new one-year contract expires.

Here’s a scouting report on Boqvist from New Jersey Hockey Now Devils beat reporter James Nichols:

“Boqvist is a good bottom-six forward with solid foot speed, forechecks well, and kills penalties. He doesn’t score too much, but when he does it in bunches. The tools to score more are there, but he won’t often create offense on his own and is elevated by superior linemates.”

This was the third-straight day that Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney inked a player to a new contract. On Monday, he signed restricted free agent defenseman Ian Mitchell to a one-year, $775,000 contract, and on Tuesday, Sweeney signed restricted free agent forward Marc McLaughlin to a one-year, two-way contract with a $775,000 cap hit. This came after Sweeney signed another pair of restricted free agents on July 5, giving a two-year (first year is two-way, second is one-way) contract ($787, 500 AAV) and goalie Kyle Keyser to a one-year contract ($775,000 AAV).

Boqvist is the tenth unrestricted free agent that the Boston Bruins have signed since the 2023 free agent market opened on July 1. That’s when Sweeney inked the other nine unrestricted free agents, signing forwards Milan Lucic (one-year, $1M AAV), Morgan Geekie (two years, $2M AAV), James van Riemsdyk (one-year, $1M AAV), and Patrick Brown (one-year, $800,000 AAV), and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (one-year, $1.05M AAV) to one-way contracts, and forwards Jayson Megna, Anthony Richard, Luke Toporowski, and defenseman Parker Witherspoon to two-way contracts.

Per Puckpedia, the Boston Bruins now have $3.87 million left in salary cap space, with 23 23 roster slots filled and 41 potential 50 contracts signed.