The Bruins came into training camp with some position battles needing to be solved, and now that the cuts are made along with a couple of major transactions – the re-signing of Torey Krug and Reilly Smith and Johnny Boychuk’s trade to the Islanders – the opening night roster is starting to come full circle. There are still a few questions that Claude Julien, Peter Chiarelli, Cam Neely and the rest of the front office need to answer before Tuesday’s roster deadline, however.

Aside from the top six forwards and the first defensive pairing, the rest of the line charts could be jumbled up between now and opening night. Maybe they don’t bring back Simon Gagne and slot Jordan Caron on the fourth line. Maybe David Pastrnak starts the season in Boston and skates with Carl Soderberg and Matt Fraser on the third line. Or maybe Krug is paired with Dennis Seidenberg instead of Matt Bartkowski.

For the time being, we have Bartkowski skating with Seidenberg, Pastrnak being sent down to Providence or back to juniors, Gagne making the team and Caron on the outside looking in. No matter what the roster looks like, the Black and Gold are hoping to get off to a good start with some new faces in the fold.

“We have to establish a connection with all the new players and everyone is going to make sure we’re dialed in and that we definitely need to carry on what we’ve accomplished already,” Bruins assistant captain Patrice Bergeron said after the team’s team building activity in Vermont. “We need to keep getting better game after game and go from there.”

Will the new guys be able to make a big impact and fill some gaping holes left by Boychuk, Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton (just to name a few) from the 2013-14 season? That remains to be seen, but for now here’s the outlook on what the Bruins opening night roster is looking like from my view:

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Loui Eriksson
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Ryan Spooner-Carl Soderberg-Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille-Chris Kelly-Simon Gagne

Gregory Campbell (Injury)
Jordan Caron
Bobby Robins

Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski-Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask
Niklas Svedberg