BOSTON — At five-on-five, Casey Mittelstadt is averaging 2.04 points per 60 minutes of play, per Natural Stat Trick. Only three other Boston Bruins are doing better. The No. 2 left wing has a career-high 11 five-on-five goals.
Collectively at five-on-five, the Bruins are outscoring opponents by a 45-31 margin with Mittelstadt on the ice. As for his line, Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson have a 68.63 goals-for share (35-16).
That is why coach Marco Sturm regularly deploys Mittelstadt and his linemates against top players. In the Bruins’ 4-2 win on Saturday over the Detroit Red Wings, Mittelstadt’s most common opponent was Lucas Raymond.
A year ago, all of this would have been inconceivable.
Mittelstadt, acquired from the Colorado Avalanche for Charlie Coyle, Will Zellers and a 2025 second-rounder, played only center. He did not make a good impression.
In 18 games for interim coach Joe Sacco, Mittelstadt scored four goals and two assists while averaging 17:17 of ice time per appearance. At five-on-five, the Bruins were outscored 14-6 with Mittelstadt on the ice. He was neither driving offensive play nor doing much at the other end. He was floating.
“In a lot of ways, I don’t think last year was indicative of the kind of player I am,” Mittelstadt said. “I was embarrassed at the end of last year for sure. There’s a few ways you can use that. You’re putting in positive energy and getting better. That was a focus of mine.”
Mittelstadt, 26 at the time, had always considered himself a playmaking center. But he was not living up to his own offensive expectations nor those of his employers. Defensively, meanwhile, Mittelstadt was becoming a sheltered center.
Mittelstadt’s new boss thought he might be something else.
‘Everyone talked bad about him’
Last summer, after he was hired, Sturm heard a lot of things about Mittelstadt. Not all of it was good.
“Everyone talked bad about him,” Sturm said. “Part of it was probably the truth. But I don’t know. Before I get involved in all that conversation, I wanted to see it. I think he proved everyone wrong at this point. Because he’s playing really good.”
In camp, Sturm identified some of Mittelstadt’s weaknesses. Some of it was out of Mittelstadt’s control.
Elias Lindholm arrived as the No. 1 center because of his two-way play and chemistry with David Pastrnak. It didn’t take long for Fraser Minten to lock down the job as the third-line center with his maturity and three-zone responsibility.
Sturm favored Zacha at No. 2 center. That would leave Mittelstadt as the odd man out in the middle.
This was a problem.
Aside from what Mittelstadt remembered as a 15-game stretch in 2020-21, he had always played center in the NHL. It is his preferred position to do what he thought was Job 1: set up his teammates to score.
The fact, however, was that Mittelstadt’s numbers did not prove his point. His NHL high-water mark was 59 points for the Sabres in 2022-23. When the Avalanche acquired him for Bowen Byram, the No. 4 pick in 2019, Mittelstadt responded with four goals and six assists in 18 games, hardly an impactful sum.
But at the same time, Mittelstadt caught Sturm’s attention with his stickwork on the boards. Sturm considers Mittelstadt the best on the team at pulling pucks off the wall. It is a craft Mittelstadt has practiced with intention under the watch of skills coach Adam Oates. In fact, one of the reasons Mittelstadt uses an Oates curve is because it promotes clean puck transfer from the boards to his blade.
Sturm thought Mittelstadt’s skills could help him on the wing. He wasn’t doing much at center. He had two goals and no assists through the first seven games.
There would not be an eighth.
On Oct. 19, 2025, Sturm made Mittelstadt a healthy scratch. He needed to grab Mittelstadt’s attention.
“Maybe he was continuing to do the same thing he did in the past. Maybe not. I don’t know,” Sturm said. “But I think he needed some guidelines and some wake-up call. Since then, he’s been excellent.”
Mittelstadt was back in the following game against the Florida Panthers. But things were changing. The lifelong center was going to the left side.
Sturm made it clear he wanted two-way play to be his new left wing’s priority. The offense would come if he took care of business away from the puck. Meanwhile, the Bruins would find other ways to score.
“I took the pressure off him just to be the offensive guy,” Sturm said. “I think when he came here, you even said he’s an offensive guy. Maybe he isn’t. Look at him now. He does the defensive part probably better than the offensive part.”
Mittelstadt still prefers to make plays from the middle of the ice. But his hands and vision allow him to create chances off the walls. Mittelstadt now considers himself a two-position forward.
“Pav’s such a good centerman,” Mittelstadt said. “He plays so well in the middle of the ice. Arvy’s always around the net. I feel like I do a little bit of the work on the walls to dig it out and find Pav in the middle. The way the line’s set up, we complement each other very well.”
A trusted center
Zacha has four goals in the past four games. The No. 2 center has 23 goals, a career best.
But Zacha’s first responsibility is playing defense. He is the conscience of the line. Neither Mittelstadt nor Arvidsson kills penalties, which signals how much heavy lifting Zacha is performing.
Nobody appreciates this more than his left wing.
“He’s awesome,” Mittelstadt said. “He’s so smart at reading the play. There’s times coming back to the D-zone where he’s got to play wing, he’s got to play center. Somehow, he’s always in the right spot. He frees me and Arvy up a lot to take off, push the D back. He takes care of everything.”
Sturm has played around with his lines. Most recently, he moved Minten up to the No. 1 line. He’s used Lukas Reichel, Mikey Eyssimont and Alex Steeves on the third line with Lindholm and Morgan Geekie. Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic, who skated with Minten on the No. 3 line earlier, are now on the fourth line with Sean Kuraly.
But there is one line Sturm does not touch. Mittelstadt has found a home. He likes how it feels.
