Bruins are reportedly looking to trade one of their defensemen

The Boston Bruins’ defense held its own on Tuesday, with Jeremy Swayman stopping all 24 shots that came his way in a 3-0 win over the Rangers.

​But Boston’s D corps still faces a major logjam in blue-line personnel — including down in the AHL.

​Even with Charlie McAvoy serving a six-game suspension to open the season, two blueliners with plenty of NHL experience in Henri Jokiharju (448 NHL games played) and Jordan Harris (172 games) are opening the year with the Providence Bruins.

With several NHL-caliber skaters pushed out of Boston’s roster, the Bruins are reportedly exploring options to move some blueliners elsewhere.

​”Boston is trying to find a new home for Henri Jokiharju, who cleared waivers,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman wrote in his “32 Thoughts” column on Tuesday. “There are teams curious to see what they do with Matthew Poitras, who avoided them for the time being. Can’t imagine he’d slide through.”​

Jokiharju has been mired in no-man’s-land since Marco Sturm took over as Boston’s bench boss last season.

Initially acquired in a trade with the Sabres at the 2025 NHL trade deadline, the 27-year-old Jokiharju arrived in Boston as a puck-moving option on the right side. The Bruins signed him to a three-year, $9 million contract in June 2025.

Boston resigning Jokiharju at the time felt prudent, given the dearth of available right-shot options on the open market.

But Jokiharju looked like a square peg in a round hole in Sturm’s defensive structure, appearing in just 41 total games last year.

The emergence of other blueliners like Jonathan Aspirot and Frederic Brunet, the ability of Mason Lohrei to shift to the right side, and the offseason arrival of Will Borgen made Jokiharju even more expendable going into the 2026-27 season.

He was one of Boston’s final roster cuts at the end of training camp, with Jokiharju clearing waivers and going to Providence after no team opted to claim him. Some of that hesitancy on the part of other teams to immediately take him off of Boston’s hands is due to that contract, with Jokiharju accounting for a $3 million cap hit for this season and next at the NHL level.

For now, Jokiharju is seemingly toiling away in Providence, with Boston on the hook for a $1.775 million cap hit for however long he’s in the AHL.​

The Bruins might have to attach a low draft pick — or seek little in return — to move Jokiharju this season. But, it appears that a clean break between the Bruins and Jokiharju might be the best move for all parties.

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.