Bruins GM Don Sweeney and Head Coach Marco Sturm are wielding their collective machete like Michael Douglas’ character in that ’80s movie Romancing The Stone.
Another day and the cuts keep coming. This time, familiar wanna-B’s Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov were cut from the NHL camp. Merkulov must clear waivers before joining the Providence Bruins, Boston’s AHL affiliate. See below for the full list of today’s camp transactions.
BRUINS ANNOUNCE TRAINING CAMP ROSTER TRANSACTIONS
Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced today, October 3, the following roster transactions:
Patrick Brown, Michael Callahan, Georgii Merkulov, Victor Soderstrom and Riley Tufte will be placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to Providence.
Frederic Brunet, Riley Duran, Brett Harrison and Fabian Lysell will report to Providence Bruins Training Camp.
#10/03/25#
First off, there are still no surprises. No player has made a statement that could change the course of what Sweeney, Sturm and the extension of their management and coaching wings of the general brain trust visualized once the dust had settled on the July 1 free-agency and trade activity.
Not that the outcome makes the Bruins happy. There is no doubt they would have been tickled had any of the player cut so far moved the gauge on their expectations established via those players’ body of work to this point.
His noticeable Prospects Tournament and last night’s net-crashing goal in Washington notwithstanding, the 22-year-old Harrison simply needs at least one more AHL season to build up his body for hockey vs. brutes. His spike from a year ago has been impressive, but he had come from so far away physically that, despite stunning progress, the Bruins are predictably choosing patience with the former third-round draft pick. After respective 47- and 46-game AHL seasons, it will be hoped that Harrison can play something closer to 80 games.
Nor did Tufte’s clever reach-over goal in Washington change management’s minds. That one’s got to be harder to take for a former 25th-overall pick (Dallas, 2016) who last season tied with two others for the team lead in AHL goals at 21 (also Vinni Lettieri and Tyler Pitlick, both gone).
Merkulov played so well in Philadelphia, not so well in Washington. The Russian center/LW is a dedicated professional, and if he were blessed with Lysell’s speed, for instance, then he’d be making millions playing in the NHL.
As for who remains, after messing around a bit, Coach Marco Sturm has quickly evolved into preferring a continuation of the chemistry established late last season by Elias Lindholm, David Pastrnak (RW) and Morgan Geekie (LW). Rink Rap cannot overstate how crucial it is to keep Geekie not only in his familiar company, especially after starting 2024-25 in a slump, but more importantly on his off wing. I won’t go off on this in detail again, but Geekie produces with his right shot in areas of the rink traditionally occupied by left shots.
There remain critical decisions following the preseason finale to be played tomorrow at 2 pm vs. the New York Rangers at TD Garden.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 