Beecher, Viel survive unkindest cut

Who knows how many regular-season games the Boston Bruins will play before reversing some of the decisions made in the last 48 hours. Thanks to today’s round of cuts, Bruins Head Coach Marco Sturm has his team.

Placed on waivers for the express purpose of reassignment to AHL Providence, left-shot wingers Matej Blumel and Alex Steeves, goaltender Michael DiPietro and left defenseman Jonathan Aspirot are on the wire as of today. Many have expressed anticipation in the loss of DiPietro, the American Hockey League’s Goalie of the Year for 2024-25. Exempt from the waiver wire but also assigned to the AHL affiliate P-Bruins, Matt Poitras.

What that means is left wingers Johnny Beecher (who also plays center – definitely a factor) and Jeffrey Viel have survived what, based on remaining roster count (23 against the NHL-maximum 23), is probably the final cut before the Bruins open the season on Wednesday night in Washington.

Jeffrey Viel is still with the Boston Bruins after the decisive cut that brings the NHL roster to meet the league maximum 23.

So here is the tentative line chart:

LW – C – RW

39 Geekie – 28 E.Lindholm – 88 Pastrnak (A)

18 Zacha – 11 Mittelstadt – 71 Arvidsson

84 Jeannot – 93 Minten – 81 Eyssimont

92 Khusnutdinov – 52 Kuraly – 47 Kastelic

48 Viel – 19 Beecher

LD – RD (pairings, see below for depth chart)

6 Lohrei – 73 McAvoy

27 H.Lindholm – 26 Peeke

91 Zadorov – 20 Jokiharju

43 Harris

G

1 Swayman

70 Korpisalo

I’m going to take a quick mail-bag approach to interpreting these cuts.

Michael DiPietro ($812,500 one-way contract… UFA 2027): AHL Goalie of the Year or not, there is no way Joonas Korpisalo was getting traded this past offseason to make room for the right-catching Michael DiPietro. Perhaps because he makes $3M of the Bruins’ $11,250,000 collective goaltending cap hit, there was an appetite for such a maneuver on social media, perhaps sparked by Korpisalo’s postseason media scrum in which he expressed frustration over not being played enough. (as Jeremy Swayman’s backup). The fact is DiPietro is unproven at the NHL level, and the Bruins’ success in the coming season is predicated on a stubborn defense/goaltending combination. They are not about to compromise it because the goalie cap number is higher than the league average. If the Bruins are to make a run at the playoffs, they absolutely cannot compromise on the back end of the rink, and that starts in goal, where Korpisalo was good last season and even better this preseason. Until Swayman shut the door last night on the New York Rangers, Korpisalo was the best goalie in camp. The Bruins cannot afford to fix what ain’t broken.

Matej Blumel ($875K 1-way > UFA 2026) & Alex Steeves ($850K 1-way > UFA 2026): The two established AHL point producers struggled to cash in on opportunities in this training camp. Steeves was brutally honest about that in a 1v1 interview with Rink Rap before he had two breakaways blow up without a shot on net. I sought out Steeves because, in learning his game, I’ve been impressed by his rinkmanship, physicality and compete level. Relatively, Blumel looked like someone whose decisions on every shift looked like time was running out in an elimination game his team was losing. Beat-the-clockey hockey, on one hand, shows urgency but, on the other, gives an opponent more opportunities than it creates for the good guys. Blumel went to the net for his one goal this preseason – nice play well executed – and I actually liked his last two games better than the helter-skelter ones where he had been shooting the puck from anywhere/everywhere instead of making the natural play. Better structure notwithstanding, Blumel lost too many 50-50 puck battles. He has to score to be a successful NHLer, Steeves does not. Steeves could play a Noel Acciari-type role, and with offensive upside shown in the AHL, the fact he can help the Bruins without scoring makes him the more compelling P-Bruin as the season begins.

Matt Poitras ($870K but 2-way > RFA 2025): I don’t think it helped that Sturm deployed Poitras to right wing in multiple preseason games. Poitras is a center and a center only. They say wings can’t play center but centers can play wing. Not everybody, not Poitras. But two of his preseason outings back at the center position were particularly impressive, and one wonders if his AHL assignment is only the prelude to a move that would open a spot for him in the NHL. For now, Fraser Minten will hold down the third-line center position and, for all intents and purposes, captain the bottom six as did Charlie Coyle when the Bruins were most recently Stanley Cup contenders. It’s a tough one for Poitras, whose only option right now is to kick the ever-livin’ crap out of his AHL competition and remind Sweeney with every AHL performance possible where he should be. Casey Mittelstadt had a nice primary assist in the Bruins’ win Saturday against the Rangers, but his camp has been otherwise underwhelming. Mittelstadt was affected by injury but played his best game of the preseason in the Bruins’ preseason finale on Saturday against NYR. As an aside, Rink Rap talked quickly with Pavel Zacha after Saturday’s game, trying to gain some insight as to why Zacha was one of Boston’s best players early last season, only to lose his second-line-center spot (as he had in 2023-24, also after a strong start). Zacha drew a contrast between the two seasons. I guess if I were on both of those teams, they wouldn’t seem at all alike to me either. But Zacha did admit to a lower-body ailment dogging him from last year, albeit in the minor category. He’s battling through it, so his wheels aren’t as pristine as usual, but his game is in good overall shape. The Czech forward’s relentless compete along the walls nicely complements his big stride up and down the ice (when he has it).

Jonathan Aspirot ($775K 2-way > UFA 2026): I’m going to wear this one out, but go see the Providence Bruins this season. Aspirot plays hard and a bit feisty, but unfortunately for him he was one of several left-shot defensemen whom the Bruins cannot afford to carry. I watch this kid play and rue the day he winds up with the Montreal Canadiens, because every knockdown hit, Centre Bell is going to raise the roof and he’ll become one of those guys who’s way better with them than he would be anywhere else.

Finally, a word on a couple of guys who survived today’s cuts.

Johnny Beecher ($990K 1-way… still RFA 2026): Beecher played a poor preseason game, then a really good one. Maybe because he was a first-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins, he is being afforded a patience that he wouldn’t otherwise get (this obviously happened in the case of Zach Senyshyn). Beecher can skate like the wind, and he’s gotten better overall at playing to his strengths these past few years. He’s on a one-year, one-way contract ($900K) with restricted free agency (RFA) to follow. When Beecher takes his opportunities to the net, he’s scary. He needs to be that player to keep his NHL going.

Jeffrey Truchon-Viel ($775K 1-way > UFA 2026): Mark Kastelic took on Matt Rempe yesterday at TD Garden and was ready for Round 2 against the behemoth enforcer-turned-agitator before Bruins management announced a round of cuts that could be final and did not include Viel. Tanner Jeannot is now a Bruin, but we can assume that keeping Viel with the NHL club does not mean that Sturm is looking to recreate the four horsemen of 1979 (O’Reilly, Jonathan, Secord and Wensink). The preseason battle of Florida notwithstanding, Viel is with the NHL Bruins because of what Sturm thinks he can do with his hockey gloves on. This is an intriguing development, especially after the undrafted left winger turned a defenseman in Philadelphia and scored to help the Bruins come back to win. Viel is a hard-skills guy who passes hard and accurately and goes up and down his wing, ever aware of the potential for him to play the fighter role. He’s been much more an AHL than NHL player, performing with great consistency in the minors, averaging 60-something games and 30-somethings points split evenly between goals and assists while posting 150-something penalty minutes. He played 34 NHL games for San Jose in 2021-22, scoring all 3 of his NHL goals. He’ll turn 29 in January. Should he stick and grow his game even modestly as a full-time NHLer, Viel becomes the story of the Bruins’ camp.