Bruins Camp Wrap: Opening Night Hint? Lohrei Buzz

The Boston Bruins are one week deep into their 2023-24 training camp.

Less than 24 hours after he racked up 29:01 TOI in 30 shifts and got an assist on his team’s only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, 21-year-old defenseman Mason Lohrei was the buzz amongst the local media and fans, as well the NHL scouting fraternity.

Wednesday marked one week since the Boston Bruins kicked off camp by announcing winger Brad Marchand as their 27th captain in team history. Did we get a hint on Wednesday of whom the new team captain will be lining up with to start the season?

Here’s your Boston Hockey Now Camp Wrap from Sept. 27:

Lohrei Has Scouts Wondering

After notching an assist and being the leader in minutes played on Tuesday night against the Sabres, rookie defenseman Mason Lohrei had one NHL scout wondering if the 21-year-old could force his way into the Bruins’ 2023-24 roster and maybe create a salary cap space-clearing trade by Bruins general manager Don Sweeney?

“Chatter is picking up more as I scout preseason games here,” a Northeast-based NHL pro scout told Boston Hockey Now on Wednesday morning. “Teams are starting to see if maybe they have a young player that can make the jump or eat up more minutes. Look at what the kid [Mason] Lohrei did in Buffalo last night. Sure, he made some mistakes, but he didn’t get down on himself, and man, he ate some minutes up. I watched him a lot last season. I think he could be ready for the show.”

Marchand-Zacha-Pastrnak?

Could we see a starting forward line of Brad Marchand-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak when the Boston Bruins drop the puck on the 2023-24 regular season on Oct. 11 against the Chicago Blackhawks?

On Wednesday, that trio skated together on the top line in practice, and the chemistry was solid as one might expect, but Marchand cautioned not to look too much into the line setup.

“They’re obviously great players,” Marchand told the media after the Group A practice. “I think we click really well, but I don’t really look too much into it. I’ve been on a different line every day, so they’re gonna try all different line combinations throughout camp, but obviously they’re two great players. Pasta’s one of the best goal scorers in the league, and ‘Pav’ [Zacha] took an incredible step last year; he has incredible vision—a really good two-way player like ‘Bergy’ [Patrice Bergeron].

So yeah, I had a lot of fun playing with them, and if I’m there tomorrow, we’ll just keep building and keep working together. It’s definitely going to be a work in progress, and we weren’t completely in sync out there, but that’s expected definitely when you have a new center.”

Here’s what Groups A and B looked like on Wednesday:

Group A:

Brad Marchand-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak

James van Riemsdyk-Charlie Coyle-Jake DeBrusk

Trent Frederic-Morgan Geekie-Patrick Brown

Brett Harrison-Matthew Poitras-Fabian Lysell

Michael Callahan-Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm-Kevin Shattenkirk

Derek Forbort-Dan Renouf

Parker Wotherspoon-Reilly Walsh

Linus Ullmark

Jeremy Swayman

Group B

Milan Lucic-Marc McLaughlin-Alex Chiasson

Danton Heinen-Jesper Boqvist-Oskar Steen

Trevor Kuntar-Johnny Beecher-Jakub Lauko

Joey Abate-Georgii Merkulov-Jayson Megna

Matt Grzelcyk-Brandon Carlo

Mason Lohrei-Ian Mitchell

Jackson Edward-Ryan Mast

Ethan Ritchie-Frederic Brunet

Brandon Bussi

Kyle Keyser

Michael DiPietro