The Bruins still haven’t decided on when Mason Lohrei will stick in the NHL (updated)

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UPDATE: The Bruins announced Monday that Mason Lohrei has been sent down to Providence in the AHL. Read below for why the move should benefit the young defenseman before he makes the jump to the NHL.

The Boston Bruins have a talented young defenseman in Mason Lohrei. They could use all the young talent they can get. So why is it still a possibility that Lohrei starts the 2023-24 season in Providence?

In actuality, the door remains open for Lohrei to stick in Boston. He's still with the NHL club as of Monday. He survived Sunday's round of roster cuts, which included Jakub Zboril, not him, being assigned to Providence.

Could Lohrei end up in Boston's opening night lineup? Frankly, that's still a move that would qualify as a surprise. But head coach Jim Montgomery continued to leave open the possibility for it, when he told TNT's Darren Pang on Lohrei: "He’s gonna be a big part of our future. Only question is if that’s Oct. 11 [for the season opener] or sometime later this year." GM Don Sweeney told reporters on Monday at Bruins Media Day that they still haven't decided where Lohrei will begin the season.

One consideration for whether there's room for Lohrei on the NHL roster is Danton Heinen's strong camp. GM Don Sweeney told reporters on Monday at Bruins Media Day that the Bruins are still weighing their options with Heinen, who joined the team on a PTO. Signing him will only further squeeze the Bruins on the cap.

While it might annoy some fans that signing Heinen is what ultimately sends Lohrei down to the minors, it's not like it's a permanent move, or that the Bruins are losing the 22-year-old Lohrei entirely. In fact, it might be best for him to get big minutes in the AHL, and get used to the physical grind of the pro game, before being thrown into the proverbial fire.

Ty Anderson speculated on the latest episode of the Sports Hub Underground, which you can hear above, that the Bruins could start Lohrei in Providence and play him 25-30 minutes a night, allowing him to acclimate without the pressure of getting dropped right into the top pairing on an NHL squad.

"Where do you want him playing [in the NHL]?" Ty said. "Is Lohrei gonna bump McAvoy off power play 1 right now? No. Is he going to bump Hampus Lindholm off power play 2? ... Is Lohrei going to play on the penalty kill [over Lindholm or Derek Forbort]? Probably not.

"However, you put him in Providence, there is nobody in his way for any of these roles, any of these minutes. They can feed him 30 minutes a night for 25 games, and then go, 'Alright, where we at with this guy?' ... He's 22. Going down to the minors for 25 games to begin his pro career is not going to kill him, and if it does, he was never the guy."

Can't stress this enough: Lohrei's entire professional experience spans eight AHL games, between regular season and playoffs. It can't possibly hurt him that badly to get to play all the top defensive roles for the P-Bruins for big-time minutes, and get used to being "hit by men," as Ty put it, and do all that without the pressure of expectations that would come with a top-pairing role in the NHL.

That being said, Lohrei should play in the NHL at some point this season. He should probably be the Next Man Up™ in the case of injuries or absences on the left side of the blue line. His combination of size and skill is damn close to undeniable. And it seems the Bruins agree.

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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt's content here.

With an off day scheduled for Sunday, Saturday at Warrior Ice Arena marked one of the last days for the Bruins to get a look at the players remaining in their camp before rosters are due on Monday afternoon.

After six preseason games over and done with, the Bruins may have seen enough when it comes to having a rough idea of what their Opening Night roster is going to look like. But Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery stressed on both Thursday and Friday that training camp was not over, and that the Bruins were looking forward to seeing how some guys looked once the club got down to one big group, and held a scrimmage Saturday morning.

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But Saturday also came with some more waiver activity for Don Sweeney & Co., with three players hitting the waiver wire after their absences were certainly noted at the spirited session in Brighton.

"When you're delivering news that you know isn't what they're hoping to hear, it doesn't matter what your business or what the situation calls for, it's hard. And today's a hard day," Montgomery said following Saturday's session. "It just is. Everybody's aware and everybody knows you gotta get down to a number at a certain point. That's why I didn't particularly love practice [today], but human nature comes into effect."

The biggest news on the waiver wire as it relates to the Bruins is the placing of defenseman and 2015 first-round pick Jakub Zboril on waivers.

The No. 13 overall pick in 2015, Zboril has played a total of 76 NHL games with the Bruins over four seasons, and is coming off a 2022-23 season that featured one goal, four points, and 31 hits in 22 games played. Zboril's 2022-23 campaign also featured extremely prolonged stretches as a scratch for Montgomery's loaded B's squad, with Zboril appearing in just three games from U.S. Thanksgiving to Mar. 19 last season.

In training camp looking to keep a strong grip on his status as the No. 7 defenseman, the 26-year-old Zboril battled an injury, and appeared in just two games this preseason, and recorded one assist with two blocked shots and six hits in over 34 minutes of action over that stretch.

When it came to winning a job in camp, Zboril was almost certainly hurt by the strong push from 2023 offseason addition Ian Mitchell, as well as his own cap hit, which checks in at a hefty (for his role, anyway) $1.137 million for 2023-24. (Mitchell, in case you're wondering, makes the league minimum.)

With Zboril on waivers, the Bruins are down to just eight defensemen on their training camp roster.

That group includes Mitchell, Mason Lohrei, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brandon Carlo, Hampus Lindholm, Derek Forbort, Matt Grzelcyk, and Charlie McAvoy.

Up front, the Bruins placed Oskar Steen on waivers for the second training camp in a row.

And similar to last year, Steen had a strong start and scored in his preseason debut, but failed to elevated beyond that strong start and seemed to fall out of frame camp progressed. Overall, the 5-foot-10 Steen finished the preseason with one goal on nine shots in two preseason appearances.

Steen, a sixth-round pick of the Bruins back in 2016, recorded one goal in three NHL appearances with Boston last year, and has totaled three goals and seven points in 26 NHL games since 2021.

Steen also recorded 14 goals and 31 points in 64 games with the P-Bruins last year, and has scored 41 goals and 100 points in 196 career games in the AHL.

In addition to Steen and Zboril, the Bruins also placed versatile forward Jesper Boqvist on waivers.

Signed to a league-minimum contract back in July, Boqvist hits the waiver wire following a training camp and preseason run that included eight shots, one takeaway, four hits, and three wins in five battles at the dot over three games. What the Bruins liked about Boqvist, who scored 10 goals and 21 points in 70 games with the Devils last season, was his ability to play up and down the lineup and play multiple positions. But you could argue that that almost hurt him this camp, with all parties involved trying to get a read on the other.

"It's always hard [for] anybody that comes in new," Montgomery admitted. "You're trying to acclimate, you're trying to understand how we want to play. And almost every player wants to do what you're asking them. So they're trying to assimilate to that. They're also trying to find their way in a new city, they got a bunch of new teammates, they're trying to find their comfort zone everywhere off the ice and then they're trying to find their comfort zone on the ice. And it's a real short time in the month of September before we start for real."

Boqvist, a second-round pick in 2017, has recorded 28 goals and 55 points in 189 NHL games over four seasons.

And with Boqvist and Steen the latest cuts from Boston's NHL camp, the Bruins have 15 forwards currently still in their NHL camp, and with the magic number appearing to be 13 based on their current cap situation.

That group of 15 right now includes A.J. Greer, Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle, Milan Lucic, Pavel Zacha, Johnny Beecher, James van Riemsdyk, Patrick Brown, Morgan Geekie, Danton Heinen (on a pro tryout), Matt Poitras, Brad Marchand, Jake DeBrusk, David Pastrnak, and Jakub Lauko.

The Bruins will have Sunday off before holding Media Day and practice at TD Garden on Monday morning, and with rosters requiring finalization by 5 p.m. that day.

NEXT: Bruins make final round of roster cuts from training camp