Boston Bruins May Be Losing Depth With Group 6 Free Agents

The Boston Bruins may end up looking a little different from an organizational depth standpoint following this season for a number of different reasons. Some will be due to salary cap complications and others will be due to a number of borderline NHL players that will be named Group 6 unrestricted free agents following the 2022-23 NHL regular season.

They are, in a sense, surprise free agents that normally would be still be restricted free agents at best, but at this point in time the Boston Bruins have to be prepared to potentially lose these longtime organizational players in the offseason.

UFA Group 6 Update:

These are the prospective players that will become UFAs this year because they haven't met the required NHL accrued games at the age of 25 or older. Players displayed in **bold can still meet the required GP to retain their RFA status

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Jack Ahcan, Joona Koppanen and Nick Wolff are all going to be players older than 25 years of age that have played less than 80 NHL games in their career, and Matt Filipe will be in that category as well if he suits up for a professional game of any kind this season. The 25-year-old Ahcan has played nine games at the NHL level over the last three seasons, but hasn’t made it to Boston this year in a crowded back end picture with four goals and 29 points in 56 games along with a minus-6 rating.

There was one point where Ahcan was looked at as an eventual replacement for Torey Krug when he departed in free agency, but that never really materialized for the college free agent signing out of St. Cloud State.

The 25-year-old Joona Koppanen has played his first five NHL games with the Boston Bruins this season and posted an assist in five games, had has eight goals and 28 points in 51 games for the P-Bruins along with a plus-7 rating. The big Finnish center was called up to Boston when Tomas Nosek went out with injury earlier this season and showed a solid ability to play a bottom-6 role in the middle.

The 26-year-old Wolff has a goal and four points along with a plus-4 rating and 61 penalty minutes in 35 games for the Providence Bruins, and has yet to play in an NHL game as a 6-foot-5, 225-pound shutdown defensemen with a physical style of play.

The 25-year-old Massachusetts-born Matt Filipe has been out this entire season with a injury after posting seven goals and 17 points in 59 games along with a plus-2 rating, and will be a restricted free agent, rather than a UFA, if he doesn’t play in a game this season. He was placed on injured reserve prior to the start of the season with a lower body injury and hasn’t played in a game for the Boston Bruins organization this season.