The Bruins are heading into training camp with more bodies than clean answers, and the squeeze is showing up all over the roster. Defense is crowded, the forward group is piling up in the bottom six, and with Charlie McAvoy suspended for the first six games of the upcoming season, Boston may need to shuffle things sooner rather than later.
That kind of logjam usually forces a choice. Someone has to move, whether it happens before camp opens or not long after it begins. For the Bruins, three names stand out as the most likely trade candidates if the goal is to clear space.
Mason Lohrei is the first one that keeps coming up, and for good reason. The trade chatter around him has been building for more than a year, and it has the feel of something that eventually gets done.
He’s 25, entering the final year of a contract that carries an AAV of $3.2 million, and he’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of the 2027 season. Boston has used him on his offside, and that versatility only adds to his value for a team that wants an offensive defenseman who can run the power play.
The Bruins aren’t going to hand him away, but a trade that helps fill a need makes plenty of sense.
Henri Jokiharju is another name that fits the same conversation, even if the fit has already looked shaky. The Bruins brought him in from the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline in March of 2025, then signed him to a three-year deal worth an AAV of $3 million.
That decision already looks like one Boston might want back. It’s hard to justify carrying a defenseman at that price if he’s going to be a healthy scratch for roughly half the games for a second straight year.
His right-shot profile could matter while McAvoy is out for those first six games, but beyond that, the logic for keeping him starts to fade fast.
Mikey Eyssimont is the cleaner bottom-six fit if Boston wants to make room for younger players such as Matthew Poitras and James Hagens. He signed a two-year deal last summer with an AAV of $1.45 million, so this isn’t really about the cap hit.
It’s about the roster spot. If the Bruins want to open space for younger forwards, Eyssimont is the kind of grinder a team could move without too much trouble.
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