- Four NHL team sources tell RG that Mason Lohrei is still available three weeks before the season starts
- Boston is willing to move Henri Jokiharju too, with two years and $6 million left on his deal
- Read below for what Don Sweeney said about the rookie crowding the blue line even further
The Bruins have more NHL defensemen than they have spots, and the rest of the league knows it.
Mason Lohrei is drawing trade interest again with three weeks to go before Boston opens the season, and he is not the only blueliner the Bruins would move. Henri Jokiharju is available too, per Jimmy Murphy of RG, who talked to four NHL team sources about the crowded back end in Boston.
One executive explained why other teams keep calling.
“With their surplus of left-shot D, lots of teams are looking at them and wondering who will be the odd man or men out.”
Another was more specific about the name that keeps coming up.
“I keep hearing Mason Lohrei as a guy that’s still out there and someone they’d still consider moving.”
Here is Murphy on the buzz around the 25-year-old:
Two more team sources told Murphy over the weekend that Lohrei is floating around trade circles, though both pushed back on the idea that Boston is shopping him. Clubs that called earlier are just circling back.
Lohrei has been through this before. Boston put him and a first-round pick on the table in a January run at Rasmus Andersson, who landed in Vegas on Jan. 18 instead.
He is entering the last year of a two-year, $6.4 million contract. Lohrei put up 26 points in 73 games last season after a career-high 33 the year before, and a $3.2 million cap hit on a puck-moving lefty is easy for a squeezed team to fit.
None of this is new. Conor Ryan counted eight NHL defensemen on the roster back on July 1:
Frederic Brunet has since pushed into that group. Don Sweeney was asked in July what the 23-year-old’s 36-point season in Providence means for his shot at the opening-night roster.
“Brunet is a good example, with mobility and puck skill that he’s applied in Providence, and how is that going to translate to the National Hockey League this year? There’s a good chance we’re going to find out.”
Jokiharju is the cheaper way out of the jam. The 27-year-old right shot has two years and $6 million left at a $3 million cap hit, and he managed 15 points in 41 games around injuries last season:
Camp opens next week, and Boston is not the only club with a roster math problem to solve before opening night. Our list of trade candidates runs deeper than one blue line.
Someone in Boston still has to be the odd man out before the Bruins face the Rangers on Sept. 29.
