Call it complacent, call it too comfortable or call it unheard of in today's day and age. The Bruins could -- and very well may -- enter the season without a single veteran pickup. GM Peter Chiarelli likes what he has, and assuming he wasn't throwing the media for a loop on Tuesday, that's the way it's going to be. 

"I think there’s a good chance that this will be our roster going into camp," Chiarelli said Tuesday. "I think there’s a good chance. There’s a lot of the summer left [and] there’s a lot of stuff that has to happen on a macro basis too.

"If anything right now, in my mind there’s more uncertainty as far as the global landscape and us in the global landscape. I guess what I’m saying is I think anything can happen depending on how things unfold, but there’s a good chance that this will be our roster going into the training camp."

That would mean every forward with the exception of Benoit Pouliot and Brian Rolston would be back, every blueliner but Joe Corvo and Greg Zanon would return, with Tim Thomas being the most notable subtraction. Jordan Caron will be getting bigger minutes, with Dougie Hamilton being the biggest name added to the NHL roster. A healthy Nathan Horton could do wonders for an offense that lost steam as the year went on. 

There's some good and some bad to having as few additions as the Bruins are expected to have. Last season it was strange to walk into the dressing room in captains' practices and see only two new guys in Corvo and Pouliot. But none? The Bruins have made depth signings with guys like Aaron Johnson, Christian Hanson and the acquisition of Chris Bourque, but none of them stand a great shot at making the NHL roster. And if they did, it would be as a spare part. 

The Bruins have a strong core and ample depth, and every single one of their top 12 forwards was on the Stanley Cup-winning team. (Caron didn't dress in the playoffs, but played in 47 games that regular season and served as a postseason "black ace.") Of their anticipated top six defensemen, only Hamilton didn't hoist the Cup in Vancouver. 

They Bruins like the guys they have in the dressing room, but when there's as little shakeup as the team is experiencing, there's reason to worry about things becoming too familiar for players, with the sense of urgency harder to find. 

"The one thing you try to do as a coach is you try and keep things fresh," Julien said. "There’s times where in the season, coaches are going to sit together and say 'Okay these are the kind of things we want to accomplish as a team -- now what kind of things can we bring into practice that’ll be different, that’ll give them a fresh look instead of saying here we go again?' "

Julien and Chiarelli spoke about doing different drills and changing the team's breakout and neutral zone regroup as a way to do new things with familiar faces. While the Bruins have a group of players who have won and who Julien has been able to motivate at the highest level, there's still something to be said for losing a top player in Thomas and not adding any veterans while other teams in the Eastern Conference have looked to load up. 

Of course, the biggest name to come to the Eastern Conference is Rick Nash, for whom the Rangers traded Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Tim Erixon and a first-round pick. The Bruins had long been rumored to have interest in the former Blue Jackets winger, but any hopes B's fans had of such an acquisition were dashed when the Rangers swung the deal Monday. 

"He’s a good -- real good -- player," Chiarelli said of the two-time 40-goal-scorer. "Very good goal scorer. Big, strong player. I don’t really get into details as far as our negotiations, our discussions with Columbus. The fact that the Rangers got him, I think it’s going to help their team."

If B's fans want the Bruins to respond with a splash of their own, they shouldn't bank on it. Chiarelli expects to ice a better team than last year's, even if nobody's added.

"We’re going to continue to improve," he said. "I don’t want it to be misconstrued by just keeping the core intact that we’re standing pat here and when rivals make moves like that. … I  don’t lose sight of that stuff and knowing that these are good teams that are getting better. 

"Our foundation, our team right now, is quite good. And we got some things that we may do at a later point, we may wait until later this season. We’re not standing still. And with … the Nash thing, those are things that we certainly don’t ignore. We don’t react right away, but we certainly don’t ignore it."

In the Bruins’ defense, there haven’t exactly been moves to be made that would be both impactful and smart from a hockey and financial sense. The top free-agent forwards got big deals (most notably, Zach Parise got $98 million over 13 years), and older players like Olli Jokinen (two years, $9 million) and Jaromir Jagr (one year, $4.5 million) got contracts that carry $4.5 million cap hits. 

The Bruins pay two of their forwards $4.5 million or more a year, and one of them contends for the Selke Trophy every year. The other is David Krejci, whose $5.25 million cap hit over the next three seasons makes him Boston’s highest-paid forward. 

So there you have it. There are plenty of reasons -- probably a combination of what Chiarelli has said and the cost for impact players – as to why the 2012-13 Bruins will look a heck of a lot like the 2011-12 Bruins, but without the 2010-11 Bruins’ best player. Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand will be a year older, but will the Bruins actually be better or -- as looking at the team on paper would suggest -- the same?