The Pittsburgh Penguins would land a 25-year-old, 6-foot-5 left-shot defenseman under one more year of team control, in a new trade proposal appearing on the site PuckGM, which is PuckPedia’s trade-simulation tool. The proposed trade would send Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei and a 2028 fifth-round pick to Pittsburgh.
Boston would get back the signing rights to unsigned Penguins prospect Charlie Trethewey and a 2028 second-round pick Pittsburgh already owns from a February trade with the Colorado Avalanche. Users of the site weighing in on the trade proposal concluded Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas would likely want more than Lohrei, even though 92% of voters called the framework feasible.
Mason Lohrei’s Path and Production
Lohrei, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before his family moved through Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is the first NHL player born there. Boston took him 58th overall in 2020 out of Green Bay of the USHL, where he was named the league’s top defenseman, then saw him post 61 points across two seasons at Ohio State.
The results in Boston have been uneven. Lohrei set a career high with 33 points during the 2024-25 season while logging nearly 20 minutes per game, then saw his production and defensive standing slide to 26 points and a healthy scratch during the 2025-26 playoffs.
He signed a two-year, $6.4 million extension with a $3.2 million cap hit in June 2025 that runs through next season, after which he becomes an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent. Coach Marco Sturm’s system has not suited him, and Boston has already fielded calls involving the defenseman, with Calgary and Edmonton both surfacing, according to a report from Pro Hockey Rumors.
He did add a gold medal to his résumé at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, contributing three points in five games for Team USA.
Charlie Trethewey’s Pittsburgh Ties and Cap Impact
Trethewey carries a family connection to western Pennsylvania. His father is a Mount Lebanon native, and Trethewey played two seasons in the Penguins Elite youth program before the family relocated during the pandemic, according to NHL.com‘s profile of the prospect. Pittsburgh drafted the right-shot blueliner 73rd overall in 2025 out of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.
His freshman season at Boston University produced modest numbers, with one goal and nine assists in 34 games — though scouts still praise his skating, shot and physicality, with decision-making flagged as the area needing work. Pittsburgh Hockey Now ranked him 16th among Penguins prospects in August. He has cited Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy as a stylistic model.
The financial equation tilts toward Pittsburgh’s comfort zone. The Penguins currently carry $10.9 million in space against a $104 million ceiling and have signaled a willingness to absorb short-term money for talent. Adding Lohrei’s $3.2 million hit barely dents that margin.
Boston, by contrast, would free up roughly $3.2 million on a tighter sheet that currently shows $5.4 million in space, according to Pro Hockey Rumors‘ Bruins cap tracker, flexibility that could matter for restricted free agents Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.
Pittsburgh would surrender a second-round pick it already controls for a fifth-rounder, a draft-capital downgrade, while gaining an NHL body immediately. Boston would shed a defenseman who no longer fits its system for a long-term piece who won’t factor into the lineup for years. Whether Dubas actually pulls the trigger, as the crowd suspects he wouldn’t without a sweetener, would only become clear if the trade pitch actually became reality.
Bruins Trade Pitch Sends Mason Lohrei to Penguins For Top Prospect