Last summer, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney made some free agent signings, as he was looking to find some lightning in a bottle. One of those signings was on defense with Jonathan Aspirot.
The 27-year-old from Quebec was undrafted and had yet to play in an NHL game after spending time with the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames American Hockey League (AHL) teams. He was inked by Sweeney and played a big role, a rather surprising one for first-year coach Marco Sturm. The left-shot ended up playing in the top-four and was one of the more pleasant surprises that Boston had in 2025-26. With that said, let's grade Aspirot's first season with the Bruins.
Jonathan Aspirot's 2025-2026 regular season
Aspirot didn't see any action in Boston until late October, but once he made an impression after injuries piled up on the backend, it was difficult for Sturm to take him out of the lineup. Paired with Charlie McAvoy when he was healthy, a lot of the time, Aspirot played in 61 games.
He averaged 16:44 a night when he was in the lineup and finished with three goals and 13 points with an eye-opening plus/minus of plus-30. In 61 games, that's just nuts. When he was in the lineup, compared to when Aspirot was out was like night and day at times for the Bruins.
Jonathan Aspirot's 2026 postseason
Aspitot played in all six first-round playoff games against the Buffalo Sabres in the first round, with two assists and a minus-3. He averaged 16:19 in the six games. Just how important was he this past season? He registered his two assists in the Boston Game 2 win in Western New York to even the series heading back to Boston. At the time, it was thought that the win would give the Black and Gold some momentum going home, but they ended up losing all three games at home in the series.
