The Providence Bruins' recent first-round loss has everyone talking about a developmental problem in the Boston Bruins organization. While people are calling for change at the AHL level, others are wondering whether it's part of a broader problem throughout the entire front office. It likely sits somewhere in the middle for who to blame for Providence being unable to win a series.
The AHL team may need to make some changes after some recent playoff failures, but the entire organization is having a problem developing players. One player who hasn't been able to become what the Bruins thought he would be is Mason Lohrei, and Don Sweeney's recent comments about it aren't the greatest indictment of how the front office views development, via Jack Studley on X, formerly Twitter.
"“I don’t think [his development] is stunted at all. I think that, Mason being able to play on the right side with Hampus in that situation showed a lot of what he’s capable of doing. There’s still variants. He’s still a young player at that position.”"Don Sweeney
The problem with Sweeney's answer about Lohrei's development is that he is a 25-year-old defenseman in his fourth professional season. He is nine games shy of 200 in his NHL career, and if he hasn't figured out his defensive struggles yet, it's hard to imagine how he will. If Sweeney is still waiting for him to develop, he could be sadly mistaken.
"“You look at year over year, in terms of where he was defensively last year in our lineup versus what he was able to accomplish this year, while albeit still doing some of the things offensively that we all really like.”"Don Sweeney
Sweeney's belief that he has gotten better defensively is a bit of a stretch. Lohrei went through two difficult healthy scratch moments this season, both at the start of the regular season and in the first round of the playoffs. Sturm is building his team from the defense out, and he doesn't think Lohrei should be in the lineup.
"“[Sturm] doesn’t dislike Mason the same way he doesn’t dislike Henri. It’s just night to night, he’s trying to put the best lineup together.”"Don Sweeney
After four seasons as a former second-round pick, if Lohrei can't crack Sturm's "best lineup" in a group that includes a career AHLer, someone on a torn MCL, and defensemen in Henri Jokiharju and Jordan Harris who barely played all season, the Bruins could have a Lohrei problem.
If Sweeney is saying all this to build up Lohrei's trade value, then all respect to him. But if he really believes that Lohrei is still in his developmental window, then the general manager might be more out of touch than we think.
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