When the Boston Bruins kick off training camp next month at Warrior Ice Arena, there are going to be a lot of questions surrounding some players in terms of just where they will fit in on the roster. The two areas where that will likely come into play are with the bottom-six forwards and on defense.
There are some players who were on the 2025-26 roster who might find it harder to crack the lineup on a nightly basis in Boston in 2026-27. Here are three Bruins players who are heading down the road for less playing time this upcoming season.
Mikey Eyssimont
When general manager Don Sweeney signed some free agents in the summer of 2025, one of them he inked to a multi-year contract was forward Mikey Eyssimont. The Bruins knew what he brought to the table after his time with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division. However, his first season in Boston didn't go as planned.
Eyssimont played in 56 games, averaging 10:55 a night with eight goals and 18 points. He found himself as a scratch more than he would have liked, but if the Bruins are going to inject some youth into the lineup on a nightly basis, like James Hagens and Matthew Poitras, then Eyssimont will be looking at more nights on the ninth floor in street clothes.
Henri Jokiharju
It was understandable why Sweeney acquired Henri Jokiharju from the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline in 2025. He would finish out the season as a replacement for Brandon Carlo, who was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, what happened last summer wasn't very understandable.
Boston re-signed Jokiharju to a three-year contract with an AAV of $3 million. The result? The right-shot played in just 41 games with two goals and 13 assists, while averaging 17:48 per night. It didn't get better in the postseason against his former team, the Sabres, as he was scratched for most of the series. Two more years of $3 million sitting in the pressbox more than playing is certainly an interesting front office decision.
Lukas Reichel
Acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline in a last-second move, the 17th overall draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2020 Entry Draft has struggled to land a full-time spot in the NHL last season, spending time with the Blackhawks and Canucks and Bruins.
He was brought back on a one-year contract, and you might think that this is an odd one since he only played in 10 games with the Black and Gold following the trade, but like Eyssimont, if second-year head coach Marco Sturm is going to get James Hagens and Matthew Poitras more time, someone is going to have to be the odd man out, right?
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