The Bruins Sportsmans Dinner was the setting for what some in the organization is the start of a great offseason.

That included money raised for the organization, as they were able to connect with community members during the lunch.

Those who attended were also greeted by speeches from Hockey Hall of Famers Paul Coffey and Doug Gilmour.

President Josh Biggs says the decision was made to spruce up the Dinner with some new faces.

"We brought in two legendary speakers in Paul Coffey and Doug Gilmour, and I think it appealed to a stretch of sports fans with guys who have watched them growing up and Leafs fans and Oilers fans alike." 

"There's been a lot of discussion with the board on which direction we wanted to go and what caliber speakers we wanted to bring in, but we thought we wanted to really bring back some of the energy and really bring 2 real big names for this one."

The supper raised a good amount of money - while the final amount isn't known, Biggs estimates that from the performance of their auction and just how many tables were filled.

"We haven't got the final numbers yet, but our auction items did bring about $30,000 and then we had a good turnout with a little over 40 tables. I think it'd be on par with a lot of our years."

Biggs says that now they're excited for the rest of the offseason, including an announcement coming soon.

"We've got lots of returning players this year and we'll we're on the cusp of announcing a new assistant coach here in the next week. We will make an announcement and we are excited about what that person is going to bring to the table."