Pastrnak's superstar play shouldn't get lost in Bruins' awful season

There's no way to sugarcoat it: The 2024-25 NHL season has been a disaster for the Boston Bruins.

After losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the second round of the 2024 playoffs, and then making a splash in free agency with the additions of Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, the Bruins looked poised to win multiple playoff rounds for the first time since 2019.

Instead, the Bruins find themselves at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings for the first time since 1997 and hoping to win next month's NHL Draft Lottery.

There have been many reasons for the Bruins' slide to the bottom-tier of the standings. One of them is veteran players underperforming. Elias Lindholm, Charlie Coyle (traded in March), Trent Frederic (traded in March), Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, Zadorov and Jeremy Swayman have all played below expectations this season.

One player who has met or exceeded expectations is David Pastrnak. In what has been an awful season for the Original Six franchise, Pastrnak has been an encouraging bright spot, improving as a leader and maintaining his status as a top-five offensive player in the sport.

Few players, if any, have more pressure on them every game than Pastrnak. He is the only elite forward on the roster. He faces the toughest competition every night from the opponent's best defensive forwards and top defensemen. And yet, he is still dominating offensively.

Consider this: Pastrnak leads the Bruins with 88 points (37 goals, 51 assists) in 75 games. The second-highest scorer on the Bruins is Brad Marchand, who tallied 47 points before being traded to the Florida Panthers on March 7. Pastrnak's 41-point lead over the next-highest scorer on his team is the largest in the league, far ahead of Nikita Kucherov, who leads the Tampa Bay Lightning in scoring by 30 points.

Pastrnak won't be a finalist for the Hart Trophy this season, but it's hard to find many players more valuable to their team's success than him.

March was one of the worst months for the Bruins in a long time. They went 3-10-1 and haven't won since March 11. The team's nine-game losing streak is the longest in the league. While a lot of B's players have performed terribly during this span, Pastrnak has been consistently productive. He tallied 13 points in 14 games in March, earning at least one point in 10 of them.

He scored twice with a team-high six shots in Tuesday night's loss to the Washington Capitals. Without Pastrnak, the Bruins likely would have suffered another multi-goal defeat.

Pastrnak ranks eighth in the NHL in both points and goals scored this season. He is likely to finish top 10 in both categories for the third straight season. Since Jan. 1, Pastrnak ranks second in both points (51) and goals (24).

He is one of five players to tally 300-plus points since the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, along with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov. Pastrnak's 145 goals during that span are tied with Draisaitl for the most. And it's not like Pastrnak is feasting on the power play, either. He has the fourth-most even-strength points (217) since the start of the 2022-23 season.

If Marchand doesn't return to the Bruins in the summer, the team will need to name a new captain. Pastrnak deserves serious consideration for the role with the way he's played this season. And it's not just that he's scoring at a McDavid/Draisaitl level with half the help those players have. He could have coasted the rest of the way post-trade deadline. But he hasn't. He's taken the opposite approach. He's played hard to the end and hasn't missed a single game all season. That's what the best leaders do.

Pastrnak is one of the best players in the world, but he can't lead the Bruins out of this mess alone. The Bruins have to get him some help up front. They tried last summer with the addition of Lindholm, who was expected to be a No. 1 center but has performed like a No. 3 center so far.

The trade market is the best place for the Bruins to add a top-tier goal scorer who can take some of the pressure off Pastrnak.

The 2024-25 season has been one to forget for the Bruins. They've taken a huge step back as a franchise. But Pastrnak's brilliance shouldn't get lost in the wreckage.