Bruins
The Bruins nonetheless have some choices to make with their closing NHL roster.
Jim Montgomery famous final week that he hoped to have his NHL roster primarily set in stone forward of the Bruins’ preseason finale, with Thursday’s street sport in opposition to the Rangers serving as a “gown rehearsal” or types earlier than regular-season play begins on Oct. 11.
However thanks to a couple spirited preseason pushes from gamers in Boston’s prospect pipeline, it appears like Montgomery and his employees nonetheless have a couple of extra choices to make with regards to crafting Boston’s closing lineup.
Boston introduced its newest spherical of coaching camp roster cuts on Wednesday afternoon, subtracting 4 gamers from the primary group.
The Bruins introduced that veteran ahead Jayson Megna has been positioned on waivers, whereas Trevor Kuntar, Marc McLaughlin, and Georgii Merkulov will report back to Windfall.
With these newest strikes, the Bruins’ trio of promising prospects in Matthew Poitras, Johnny Beecher, and Mason Lohrei are nonetheless sticking with the NHL roster — at the least for a couple of extra days.
At this stage of the preseason, a poised pivot like Poitras has probably earned himself a nine-game trial up within the NHL ranks — with Boston given an prolonged trial to see if the 19-year-old has the mettle to hold with the Bruins all season lengthy, or if one other yr in junior hockey is the apt course to take.
Beecher has seemed the half as a fleet-footed, bodily skater who can slot into heart on a bruising fourth line alongside Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko, though his chief competitor in veteran Patrick Brown additionally stays on the camp roster.
Lohrei’s means to keep away from a number of roster cuts is a testomony to the 22-year-old blueliner’s efforts to construct his sport with every new preseason contest. Nonetheless, though each Beecher and Poitras would possibly maintain the within edge to carving out roster spots on Oct. 11, Lohrei is perhaps higher suited to begin the season in Windfall.
Even together with his poise with the puck and knack for logging heavy minutes (24:40 vs. Washington on Tuesday), Lohrei nonetheless has a lot to work on on the professional sport with regards to his D-zone play and skating.
At this stage of his growth, Lohrei is perhaps higher served beginning the yr in opposition to AHL competitors, the place at the least he can log 20+ minutes an evening and in addition earn prime power-play reps. Even when he was to interrupt camp with Boston, Lohrei would probably be handed sheltered minutes out of the gate, with little to no power-play reps accessible.
Even when he’s one of many closing roster cuts earlier than the week closes, Lohrei has a completed an excellent job of accelerating his timeline for NHL motion throughout this preseason — with a mid-season call-up now a viable possibility if he continues to take advantage of sizable minutes up for grabs in Windfall.
The fates of Poitras, Lohrei, and Beecher nonetheless loom giant over these closing days of camp. However the Bruins nonetheless produce other roster choices to make as a way to get their roster all the way down to 22 or 23 gamers.
Boston nonetheless wants to find out whether or not forwards Jesper Boqvist, Patrick Brown, Danton Heinen, and A.J. Greer can carve out spots within the backside six, with Heinen making a compelling argument for a league-minimum deal as both a flexible third-line ahead or the staff’s thirteenth ahead (if Poitras sticks within the NHL all season).
Together with seeing if Lohrei can maybe make one closing push, the Bruins additionally must type out who slots in because the staff’s seventh defenseman. Jakub Zboril was the incumbent spare blueliner getting into camp, however Ian Mitchell may need leapfrogged him during the last week.
Extra cap house on the horizon?
Some excellent news for the Bruins and the remainder of the NHL, as commissioner Gary Bettman famous after a Board of Governors assembly on Wednesday that preliminary income projections have the league’s wage cap leaping from $83.5 million in 2023-24 to someplace between $87-88 million in 2024-25.
That’s a large bump after years of both stagnant or nonexistent cap development, due largely to the financial results of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sizable escrow debt that the league’s gamers have needed to repay to house owners within the wake of that fiscal turmoil.
As soon as that escrow debt is absolutely paid off, the NHL might see a sustained surge of cap flexibility, with one projection from The Athletic itemizing a possible cap ceiling of $92.1 million by 2025-26.
A further $3-4 million in spending energy comes at an ideal time for the Bruins, who might have at the least $28 million in cap room accessible for what could possibly be a busy offseason.
Boston already has loads of key cogs like David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Pavel Zacha, and Linus Ullmark all signed long-term, with new offers for Jeremy Swayman and Jake DeBrusk standing as essentially the most urgent in-house issues to take care of subsequent summer time.
That further cap house might go a great distance if Boston appears to look exterior of the group for heart depth — be it in free company or taking up a large contract like a Tomas Hertl within the coming years.
Join Bruins updates🏒
Get breaking information and evaluation delivered to your inbox throughout hockey season.