The Boston Bruins would seem to have a logjam on the back end where they legitimately have 10 defensemen who could expect to be on the NHL roster when training camp breaks in the fall. Obviously, Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, and the newly acquired Will Borgen are the mainstays and automatics, but after that, the picture could change quickly based on performance and circumstances.
None of that has changed despite some reporting that one of those defenders invoked their no-trade clause to squash a potential Darnell Nurse deal when they nixed a move to Edmonton, with Lindholm and Zadorov being the most obvious candidates for that sequence of events.
David Pagnotta reports that the Oilers and Bruins had a deal in place that would’ve sent Darnell Nurse to Boston.
The trade fell apart after a player, rumored to be Nikita Zadorov, headed to Edmonton exercised their no-trade clause and vetoed the deal. pic.twitter.com/ylNvrtZnZq
— NHLMuse (@NHL_Muse) July 3, 2026
The glut comes after the B’s signed both Connor Clifton and Jordan Harris in free agency and then watched as a trade materialized for Rangers top 4 D-man Will Borgen once they were out of the running for big-ticket targets like Darnell Nurse, John Carlson and Jacob Trouba.
It’s also somewhat mitigated, at least very early in the season, by the six-game suspension for McAvoy that is going to keep him out of the equation for the first few weeks of the 84-game regular season set to get going in October. So it could be that one, or perhaps even two, B’s defensemen could be on the move for salary cap space at some point during the year once the Bruins get over the early-season hump and wade through any injury issues that could crop up during the regular season.
“Yeah, I mean, there easily could be [a trade to move a D-man], depending on where other teams sit and the conversations I’ve had,” said Don Sweeney back on July 1 at the close of the first day of NHL free agency. “Charlie’s [McAvoy] not playing the first six games. You just never know between now and when we start [what is going to happen], and injuries…it was an area [on the back end] we told you guys that we’re going to address, and that’s exactly what we tried to do.”
Per the good folks at Puck Pedia, the Bruins have $5.39 million in salary cap space after filling out their NHL roster at the outset of free agency. That’s clearly plenty of cap space in terms of allowing them to do whatever they want with their current roster, but also probably not enough cap space to make any kind of significant in-season upgrade when the team decides where it needs roster improvement.
“We’re in a pretty good spot from a cap standpoint right now. At the end of the day, we should try and maintain flexibility, and if we can garner more because there’s a trade opportunity with an eye towards the future, of course we’re going to consider it,” said Sweeney. “That’s not my main principal point of attack. I’m not looking to just open up space for what might happen.
“I want to maintain flexibility, I want to pursue things that improve our hockey club when they present, and if there are players that are…we’re a destination team, but not everybody has identified us, and we want to become that [NHL] place that [players] say, ‘No, no, no, that’s where I want to play.’”
One would expect, then, that a move to create more salary cap relief could be on the horizon at some point, and the most likely candidate to be moved from the blue line would be Mason Lohrei or Henri Jokiharju. Lohrei was mentioned prominently in trade talks over the last six months or so and has value around the league as a young, productive player who’s still relatively affordable, with one remaining year of a $3.2 million contract and one year of RFA status remaining, with arbitration rights to follow.
The 27-year-old Jokiharju has two more years at $3 million per season but played only 41 games, falling in and out of the coach’s favor under Marco Sturm before ultimately finishing with two goals and 13 points, along with a plus-2 rating. In a perfect world, the Bruins would probably find a taker for the Jokiharju contract once injuries and performance issues potentially create a need on some team’s back end for an experienced player with a decent hockey resume.
“D zone exits are going to be an area that we have to be better at. Part of that, I should say, starts up the ice, and Marco’s [Sturm] pointed out that we’ll probably have to forecheck a little differently and create anxiety up the ice, some of our D having the opportunity to surf the neutral zone as opposed to maybe [just] backing up and retrieve [the pucks],” said Sweeney. “So we have to continue to evolve, everybody does. There’s only one winner, and nobody’s really copying that exact form, but there are bits and pieces that I think have to be malleable as a group, and that’s where our group is hopefully getting to.
“[Frederic] 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.”
That’s good news for Brunet, of course, who has earned a chance to prove himself at the NHL level after posting 12 goals and 36 points in Providence this past season, but it feels like it might mean relocation news for an as-yet-unnamed Bruins defensemen or two that’s still currently on the roster headed into the summer dog days of the offseason.
