Training camp is five days old for the Boston Bruins, and you knew sooner or later that there were going to be some decisions when it came to the first round of cuts. Those were announced on Monday afternoon with no real surprises. The bigger decisions are looming this weekend.
Boston Bruins announce first-round of cuts
On Monday afternoon, Boston announced that the following players were being sent to the American Hockey League (AHL) to join the Providence Bruins. Wyatt Bongiovanni, Luke Cavallin, Loke Johansson, Max Lundgren, Navrin Mutter, Tobie Paquette-Bisson, Kalle Vaisanen and Max Wanner. If we're being honest, there are no surprises there at all.
Narvin Mutter cleared waivers on Monday after being placed on waivers Sunday. Now, all eyes will turn to Tuesday night at TD Garden when the Bruins play the Philadelphia Flyers in their second and final home preseason game. They will visit the Washington Capitals and Flyers later this week before the regular season begins next Tuesday night at TD Garden against the New York Rangers.
Bruins next round of cuts is going to be interesting
Again, there is no suspense or surprise when it comes to the first round of cuts. Providence opened its training camp on Monday with a handful of players, but that is going to grow ahead of their two preseason games later this week against the Springfield Thunderbirds in a rematch of last season's AHL playoff series won in four games by Springfield.
As for the next round of cuts, there are going to be some decisions with a couple of players, mainly James Hagens, Matthew Poitras, and Frederic Brunet. After the first preseason game against the Capitals on Sunday night at the TD Garden, all three did enough to prove they belong. In fact, you could make the case that Hagens and Poitras might be two of the Black and Gold's playmakers.
However, when it comes to Poitras and Brunet, if they are going to be sent to the AHL, they both will have to clear waivers. Unlike Mutter, that is unlikely to happen. Just for that reason, both need to be kept in the NHL when camp breaks. General manager Don Sweeney will have questions to answer if some of the veterans are kept over Poitras and Brunet and they lose, or if both don't get through waivers. That can't happen.
Three preseason games remain over the next four days, starting on Tuesday night, where a lot of questions will be answered.
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