Bruins’ Michael DiPietro, finally, set for well-deserved full-time NHL role
When Michael DiPietro won the Baz Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s top goalie in 2024-25, it felt like a long-time coming.
It was his sixth year of pro hockey, with the former top goaltending prospect doing everything in his power to prove he deserved a shot in the NHL. The Boston Bruins already had a crowded crease that year with Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo. So there wasn’t really an opportunity for DiPietro to see any playing time. He was in a strong tandem situation himself back in Providence. DiPietro was definitely the better of the two goalies, but it didn’t seem to matter.
In the end, his backup – Brandon Bussi – would seek out a new opportunity elsewhere and would go on to leave the organization and lead the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup. DiPietro ended up putting up career-best numbers in the AHL, which led to him winning the Les Cunningham Award as league MVP.
To this day, DiPietro has never been given a fair shake in net. His NHL debut came following an emergency recall, so allowing seven goals on 24 shots as a last-minute call-up is understandable. DiPietro has played just parts of four games over seven years, which included him spending nearly the entire COVID-impacted 2020-21 season with Vancouver’s taxi squad. For a young, promising goaltender, it was tough getting into just four games total between the NHL, AHL and World Championship. By all accounts, it appeared to put an end to his NHL dreams. His last full NHL game came on Jan. 23, 2022 – a 3-1 loss to St. Louis.
But here he is, at the age of 27, with an opportunity to play full time in the big leagues for the first time ever.
The Windsor, Ont., native was once considered one of the top goaltending prospects in the world. Despite being on the smaller side at six-foot-1, DiPietro was a dominant force both in the OHL, and internationally with Canada. Even in 2019, when a bad goal knocked the Canadians out in the quarterfinal, DiPietro looked like the tournament’s top goaltender. He won the 2017 Memorial Cup while taking home top goalie honors; he led the OHL in shutouts three years in a row, while also leading the team with the best GAA in his final year of major junior. DiPietro looked as legit as they come, which is why he was the third goalie taken in 2017 behind Jake Oettinger and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Despite all that success, an NHL opportunity never seemed to open up. DiPietro was always a No. 3/4 in either Vancouver or Boston with just a pair of NHL starts to his credit. It took until this offseason for the Bruins to carve out a true path for him, but it’s an well-earned opportunity, nonetheless. DiPietro has an all-time AHL record of 118-50-16 with 12 shutouts and a .918 save percentage – there’s nothing else for him to prove there. Over the past decade, DiPietro’s 118 wins are good for fifth among all AHLers. But there isn’t a single goalie in that span with more than 150 starts and fewer losses (50) than him, and he’s the only goalie in the top five in wins to have played fewer than 200 games.
The fact that the Bruins moved on from Korpisalo and didn’t bother to sign a different veteran backup shows they clearly value DiPietro’s raw talent.
DiPietro is one of the most athletic backup goalies you’ll find. He’s exceptionally quick and never gives up on a play, no matter what. While he’ll still struggle with shots up high from time to time, DiPietro has done a better job over his career of using his glove to take away the upper half of the net. He reads side-to-side passes well and has the explosive leg movement to stop one-timers with ease.
To steal starts from Swayman, DiPietro will have to rely on the elite athleticism that got him here. He’s incredibly agile, but his aggressiveness at the top of the crease – a necessary compensation for his 6-foot-1 frame – has left him vulnerable to backdoor passes in his limited NHL action. He looked a lot more in control in his crease during his pre-season action earlier this month, but we’ll see how it really translates when the games start to matter.
As a 27 year old, DiPietro isn’t exactly a young buck anymore, either. If he falters, the Bruins will likely need to look elsewhere for help to save their season. They have Jiri Patera and Simon Zajicek in the minors, but neither seems like legitimate backup material. The Atlantic Division is going to be tougher this year, with both Florida and Toronto looking ready to re-establish themselves in the playoff fight. That means goaltending is going to be important, and DiPietro will need to be capable of stealing starts away from Swayman.
The Bruins don’t need DiPietro to replicate Swayman’s elite numbers (a massive 42.42 even-strength GSAx last year), but they do need DiPietro to provide a reliable breather. If he can post a save percentage north of .900 and a GSAx above 5.00, it would be an upgrade over Korpisalo’s backup tenure. No pressure or anything, DiPietro, but it’s make-it-or-break-it time here. He has to be extra motivated, knowing this might his last real chance to stick in the NHL.
It’ll be hard to find many better stories than DiPietro’s. Most wrote him off as a total bust, despite most of his shortcomings happening outside of his control. Year after year, DiPietro proved himself capable of dominating against his peers, while watching so many across the AHL get the chances he craved.
Now, it’s (finally) his turn.
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