Signing Lindholm to his massive contract instead of locking up Debrusk was the beginning of the end
I still don't hate the Lindholm signing. The Bruins badly needed a top 6 C and the choices were essentially him and Stephenson. Chandler's not exactly lighting it up at the Kraken either. They took their chances with Elias, unfortunately it's not really working so far. Probably paid him too much money/term, but FAs cost.
The problem was more doing basically nothing to replace DeBrusk. That was an obvious error.