The Boston Bruins have already solved one roster problem before the season even got going.
They moved Henri Jokiharju off the active roster after he cleared waivers, and the defenseman is now available for a trade. Boston has already been looking for a trade partner, so Jokiharju’s roster status is no longer standing in the way.
But the Bruins have another problem coming.
Matt Poitras.
Poitras is currently on injured reserve after suffering an injury on Sept. 22. Boston signed the 22-year-old to a one-year, two-way contract with an $850,000 NHL cap hit earlier this month.
Once he is healthy, Boston is going to have to find somewhere to put him.
And simply sending him through waivers isn’t a realistic solution.
The Bruins Have to Find Room for Poitras
Poitras is in a very different situation from Jokiharju.
Jokiharju is a 27-year-old defenseman who couldn’t crack Boston’s opening-night lineup even with Charlie McAvoy suspended for the first six games. That made him a logical candidate to be waived.
Poitras is a former second-round pick who has already played 69 NHL games and remains an important part of Boston’s future.
The Bruins also don’t have much reason to risk losing him for nothing.
He spent most of last season in Providence, recording 44 points in 69 AHL games, but he has shown enough at the NHL level to make a waiver assignment dangerous.
So Boston essentially has two options.
Keep Poitras on the NHL roster or trade someone else to make room.
The first option is the obvious one.
Poitras needs to play, and the Bruins need to see what they have in him.
That makes another trade increasingly likely.
Boston Could Have Another Trade Coming
The interesting question is who Boston could move.
The Bruins currently have plenty of NHL-caliber forwards, including Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, Marat Khusnutdinov and Mark Kastelic. Their opening-day roster also includes veteran depth players such as Sean Kuraly and Mikey Eyssimont.
Not all of those players are equally expendable.
Lindholm and Zacha have important roles, while Boston invested significant assets in its younger core. Moving one of them simply to accommodate Poitras would be a much bigger decision.
That makes someone like Kuraly or Kastelic more interesting.
Kuraly is a veteran who knows Boston’s system and has been an important depth player for years. Kastelic provides size and physicality, but his role is also easier to replace internally.
The Bruins could also look at moving a defenseman now that Jokiharju is already out of the picture.
Connor Clifton, Will Borgen and Nikita Zadorov are all on the NHL roster, while Boston has other defensemen pushing for opportunities.
The important thing is that Boston doesn’t have to make that decision today.
Poitras is injured.
But that clock is ticking.
The Jokiharju situation showed that Don Sweeney is willing to make difficult roster decisions when necessary. Now he may have another one coming.
And this time, simply putting someone on waivers won’t be nearly as easy.
Bruins Solved One Roster Problem, But Another Is Coming