Bruins Recall Billy Sweezey On Emergency Basis
The Bruins announced Sunday they’ve recalled defenseman Billy Sweezey from AHL Providence under emergency conditions and designated Henri Jokiharju as a non-roster player due to a family matter. Their active roster count remains at 23.
Sweezey was sent down just yesterday to make room for fellow rearguard Hampus Lindholm as he came off injured reserve. That was only a one-day recall, coming after a Friday emergency summons due to concerns about Andrew Peeke‘s availability.
Sweezey did not play in yesterday’s 5-2 win over the Blackhawks, only because Lindholm was able to re-enter the lineup after a six-game absence. Now, with Peeke still listed as day-to-day with his lower-body injury and Jokiharju being essentially confirmed unavailable for Tuesday’s game against the Stars, Sweezey has a legitimate shot at making his Boston debut this week.
The B’s signed the 29-year-old righty to a two-year, two-way contract in free agency in 2024. The undrafted Yale grad had spent the majority of his professional career in the Blue Jackets organization prior to arriving in Boston, including several call-ups late in the 2022-23 campaign that resulted in him making his NHL debut.
In nine games for Columbus that season, he recorded an assist and a -3 rating while averaging 17:07 of ice time per game. The defensive-minded 6’1″, 202-lb depth man then spent all of 2023-24 on assignment to the AHL before reaching unrestricted free agency and landing with his hometown Bruins.
After spending the totality of last season in Providence after clearing waivers, Sweezey now has a shot at his first NHL game in nearly three years. He’s having a career year for the P-Bruins, tying his career high in AHL points (11) in just 34 games. His +22 rating not only leads Providence blue liners but is also tied for third in the league overall behind teammate Patrick Brown and the Red Wings’ William Lagesson, who share a +23.
He’ll be relieving Jokiharju, who’s been a fine addition to Boston’s blue line since being acquired from the Sabres at last year’s trade deadline. The shutdown-minded righty has nine assists and a +3 rating in 32 outings this season, averaging 17:53 per game with strong possession numbers – a 50.7 CF% and 52.0 xGF% – at even strength.
Boston Bruins Activate Henri Jokiharju
The Boston Bruins announced today that defenseman Henri Jokiharju has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the Bruins placed blueliner Hampus Lindholm on IR.
Per team reporter Belle Fraser, Jokiharju was a full participant in Bruins practice yesterday, indicating that a full return to the lineup was near. Jokiharju has been out since Nov. 28 with an undisclosed injury, an absence that cost him 16 games.
Jokiharju has 25 games played this season and has scored six points. When healthy, he’s Boston’s No. 5 defenseman, 17:23 time on ice per game including around a minute per game on each special teams unit. The 26-year-old is likely to slot into Boston’s second pairing tonight against the Kraken.
Replacing Jokiharju on IR is Lindholm, who is dealing with an undisclosed injury. There hasn’t been much detail provided on Lindholm’s injury, both regarding what the ailment actually is, or what kind of recovery timeline Lindholm faces. But by virtue of being placed on IR today, he’ll miss at least a week.
If Lindholm’s absence proves to be an extended one, the Bruins would be left without one of their most important defensemen. Lindholm is Boston’s No. 2 blueliner behind Charlie McAvoy, averaging 22:10 time on ice per game including second-unit power play duties and first-unit penalty kill deployment.
While he’s still heavily relied-upon by head coach Marco Sturm, Lindholm has had to navigate choppy waters the last few years. He missed most of last season with an injury, and saw his offensive production drop from 53 points in 2022-23 to just 26 in 2023-24. He had 14 points in 34 games this season before his injury. Lindholm is under contract through 2029-30 at a $6.5MM annual cap hit.
Bruins Place Henri Jokiharju On IR, Recall Michael Callahan On Emergency Basis
More clarity has been provided on defenseman Michael Callahan‘s status from the Boston Bruins’ optional skate this morning. Boston announced that Callahan has been recalled on an emergency basis, and the team has placed defenseman Henri Jokiharju on the injured reserve, retroactive to November 28th.
There hasn’t been much insight into the nature of Jokiharju’s injury, though it’s obviously connected to the Bruins’ loss to the New York Rangers yesterday. It’s something that must have been discovered postgame, as the Finnish rearguard tallied one assist while skating in 20:51 of action.
Regardless, it’s another injury to Boston’s defensive core, who’s already without Charlie McAvoy and Jordan Harris. Despite the injuries, the Bruins haven’t relied on Jokiharju too much, as he’s registered six assists in 25 games on the year while averaging 17:23 of ice time.
Additionally, while Jokiharju’s value has typically stemmed from his play on the defensive side of the puck, he has been one of the worst performers in that regard for Boston this season. Of defensemen on the team with more than 20 games played, Jokiharju is second to last on the roster with an 88.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength. This comes after averaging a 90.8% across six years with the Buffalo Sabres.
Meanwhile, Callahan finds himself in a familiar position, albeit on an emergency basis. He’s spent a significant portion of his season serving as a depth defenseman for the Bruins, though he’s only appeared in three contests up to this point. In Providence, Callahan has registered two assists in 12 games with a +6 rating.
Bruins Extend Henri Jokiharju, John Beecher, Michael DiPietro
The Bruins announced a trio of extensions Monday, keeping defenseman Henri Jokiharju and goaltender Michael DiPietro away from UFA status and forward John Beecher away from RFA status. Jokiharju’s contract is a three-year deal at $9MM for a $3MM cap hit, Beecher’s deal is a one-year, one-way contract at $900,000, while DiPietro’s deal is a two-year contract worth $1.625MM in total and $812,500 annually.
Boston retains Jokiharju after general manager Don Sweeney said last week they were working on an extension with the right-shot defender. He would have been among the youngest options on the open market after turning 26 two weeks ago, but instead, he stays with the Bruins on a multi-year deal. Addressing their absence of depth on the right side of the blue line was a priority for Boston this summer, and absent from making a big splash for top UFA Aaron Ekblad, there weren’t a ton of upgrades available at the position on the UFA market. Dante Fabbro may have been one, but he extended with the Blue Jackets yesterday.
The Bruins acquired Jokiharju, who had spent most of his NHL career with the Sabres, from Buffalo at the 2024 trade deadline for a 2026 fourth-round pick. The 6’0″ Finn was a good fit in Boston after a tough year with the Sabres, posting four assists and a plus-seven rating in 18 games to end the season while averaging north of 21 minutes per game. His defensive impacts were admirable as he had to play far more than he usually would with Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy both injured. As a result, he likely left some earnings on the table with this extension. AFP Analytics projected Jokiharju to receive a three-year deal at $3.6MM per season.
He won’t receive that kind of deployment again with McAvoy presumably back in the fold to start next season, but he should slot in as No. 2 on the depth chart on a pairing with either Lindholm or Nikita Zadorov. The Bruins still have $12.7MM in cap space after today’s moves with no notable RFAs to re-sign, according to PuckPedia. They could still pursue an additional righty in addition to a forward pickup or two, but for now, Jokiharju looks set to replace the top-four role that Brandon Carlo held for so many years until his trade to the Maple Leafs at the deadline.
Jokiharju’s contract will pay him a $2.5MM base salary and a $500,000 signing bonus in 2025-26, a $3MM base salary and a $250,000 signing bonus in 2026-27, and a $2.75MM base salary in 2027-28, according to PuckPedia. He also lands an eight-team no-trade clause for next season.
Beecher, the Bruins’ first-round pick in 2019, returns on a deal that comes in slightly north of his $874,125 qualifying offer. The 6’3″ pivot firmly established himself as a full-time bottom-six forward last season after appearing in 52 regular-season games in 2023-24. He’s put together a 10-11–21 scoring line in 130 games across his two NHL seasons, posting a -15 rating while averaging 11:01 of ice time per game. He flexes between center and wing but has been great on draws, winning 53.2% of faceoffs over a decently large sample.
His possession impacts leave something to be desired, but that’ll happen when a player receives as pure a shutdown role as Beecher has. He’s seen a dZS% of 83.6 at even strength for his career, including 82.3% in 2024-25. While the 24-year-old isn’t on track to realize his first-round potential, he is a perfectly serviceable fourth-line piece, particularly at a sub-$1MM price tag.
As for DiPietro, their No. 3 netminder would have had multiple offers on the open market, but instead stays with Boston. While there isn’t an immediate pathway to an NHL role for him, there could be one if the Bruins opt to trade backup Joonas Korpisalo. He has three seasons left on his contract at a $3MM cap hit, which could be an appealing deal for teams looking to add a goalie amid a weak free agent market.
It’s the first one-way deal of DiPietro’s career, although it’s equivalent to a league-minimum one. He’ll earn $775,000 in 2025-26 and $850,000 in 2026-27, per PuckPedia, the latter of which is expected to be the new league-minimum salary when the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is officially ratified. The 26-year-old hasn’t yet seen NHL action for Boston but was exceptional for AHL Providence in 2024-25, posting a .927 SV%, 2.05 GAA, four shutouts, and a 26-8-7 record in 40 games.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Bruins, Henri Jokiharju Having Extension Talks
The Bruins are making an attempt to sign right-shot defenseman Henri Jokiharju to a new deal before he hits the open market next Tuesday, general manager Don Sweeney told reporters (via Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub).
“We have a need on the right side, no doubt about that,” Sweeney said. Boston acquired Jokiharju, 26, from the Sabres at the trade deadline for a 2026 fourth-round pick. It was a peculiar move for a team selling off high-priced assets at the time, but they simply needed NHL-experienced bodies on their blue line to make it through the last few weeks of the season after dealing away Brandon Carlo and losing Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy to injuries, robbing them of their top three rearguards.
While this offseason will ideally provide enough time for Lindholm and McAvoy to be 100% entering training camp and lead to a reset for the rest of the roster, it makes sense the Bruins would want to at least entertain the idea of retaining Jokiharju after surrendering an asset for him just a few months ago. While the 6’0″ Finn would typically be too young to test unrestricted free agency under non-Group VI status, he came into the league as a teenager with the Blackhawks in 2018-19 and has thus accrued seven years of service time. That puts him to UFA status this summer, regardless of his age.
Jokiharju had a tough year offensively, producing 10 points in 60 games. That tied for the worst points-per-game output of his career at 0.17. He’s more of a two-way threat, though, and the 29th overall pick of the 2017 draft wasn’t projected as a big point-getter in the NHL. Defensively, Jokiharju showed a lot to like after the trade. He closed the year with a plus-seven rating in 18 games for Boston, backed up by a strong 50.7 CF% on an understaffed team in difficult deployment. He averaged 21:22 per game, which would have been the second-highest mark of his career over a full season.
There’s a clear fit for him as a fine second-pairing option to help anchor youngster Mason Lohrei or in more sheltered third-pairing minutes if Boston can make a more notable addition on the right side, too, bumping Andrew Peeke to the press box or waivers. There won’t be many options to replace him on the open market if he walks, unless the Bruins make themselves a legitimate contender for a name like Aaron Ekblad or Dante Fabbro (assuming either even gets to the market). That will give Jokiharju some leverage in talks, though. If he hits the open market, AFP Analytics projects he’ll earn a three-year deal worth $3.6MM per season. That’s a little pricey for a player who struggled to hold down a role on an underperforming Buffalo roster in the past couple of years, but he has shown top-four competency in flashes and might still have some room for growth in his game, unlike his older UFA peers.
Atlantic Notes: Kulich, Peterka, Norris, Jokiharju
Sabres forward Jiri Kulich has been placed in concussion protocol, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters today (video link). He left yesterday’s game against Vegas early after taking a hit. However, there’s some hope that it won’t be a long-term injury for the 20-year-old as Ruff wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Kulich could join the team at some point on their upcoming road trip. Kulich has done pretty well in his rookie NHL season, tallying 12 goals and seven assists through 49 games while logging a respectable 14:23 per night of ice time.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- Ruff’s presser also provided updates on two other injured Sabres. JJ Peterka skated before practice today and accompanied the team on the trip; Ruff wouldn’t rule out the winger returning to the lineup on Monday. Peterka has missed the last two games due to a nagging injury, resulting in him slipping to third on the team in scoring with 51 points in 61 games. Meanwhile, recently acquired center Josh Norris had treatment today on his undisclosed injury and was expected to accompany the team on their road trip but he’s not believed to be as close to returning as Peterka. Norris has a goal and an assist in his first three outings in a Buffalo uniform.
- Things have gone relatively well for new Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju. After playing time was quite hard to come by in Buffalo, the 25-year-old is logging over 20 minutes a night through his first four outings with Boston. Accordingly, he told reporters including Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald that he’s open to starting discussions on a contract extension already. Jokiharju has a $3.1MM cap charge this season and will be slated to reach unrestricted free agency for the first time in July. But with just seven points in 46 games this season and his limited role before the trade, it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to command a similar price tag this summer.
Evening Notes: Gavrikov, Marchand, Hedman, Jokiharju
Los Angeles Kings general manager Rob Blake spoke in-depth about his efforts to extend defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in a post-Trade Deadline media availability. Blake shared that keeping Gavrikov around is a top priority for the team, but finding a new deal could take some time after Gavrikov changed agents in February. But even with the flip, Blake reiterated that both the team and the player are confident a deal can get done.
Gavrikov has been a top defender for the Kings. He has averaged nearly 24 minutes of ice time on a nightly basis, good for second on the team behind Drew Doughty‘s average of 25:32. Gavrikov has brought a shutdown presence to those premier moments. He leads the team with 117 blocked shots, to go with 21 points, 14 penalty minutes, a plus-eight, and 34 hits in 60 games. He’s averaged north of 20 minutes of ice time in every season since his 2021-22 campaign with the Columbus Blue Jackets. That season stands as Gavrikov’s career-year, headlined by a career-high 33 points and 68 penalty minutes in 80 games. The 29-year-old defenseman has slowed his scoring since those days, but looks capable of carrying his brick wall style well into his 30s. The Kings will look to bank on that growth on his next extension, which will likely carry Gavrikov to the sunset years of his career.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Boston Bruins offered captain Brad Marchand a three-year extension before opting to trade him to the Florida Panthers, per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Kaplan goes on to add that Boston’s original extension offers to the 36-year-old Marchand were stuck at two years, but that the team expanded their offer in the waning minutes to try and secure a deal. Ultimately, the money wasn’t right for Marchand – and he opted to pursue a move to the Panthers instead. Marchand will have a chance to sign a more preferable deal when he enters unrestricted free agency this summer. The Bruins lost their second-highest scorer in dealing away Marchand, who has 21 goals and 47 points in 61 games on the year. He’ll be a major addition for the Florida Panthers, but will first need to overcome a shoulder injury that’s expected to hold him out for a few weeks.
- Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman missed the team’s Saturday night matchup against the Boston Bruins and has been listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Hedman has made a major impact on the Bolts lineup over his recent stretch, with five points in his last five games and seven points in his last 10 games. J.J. Moser elevates to the top line in Hedman’s absence, while Emil Martinsen Lilleberg draws back onto Tampa Bay’s third pair. Moser has 10 points and a plus-13 in 35 games this season, while Lilleberg has 14 points, 85 penalty minutes, and a minus-seven in 58 games.
- The newest Boston Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju told reporters that he had requested a trade away from the Buffalo Sabres prior to his deadline-day move. He also clamored about his positive relationships with new Boston teammates Casey Mittelstadt and Joonas Korpisalo. Jokiharju joins the Bruins after six tough seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. He earned top-pair minutes at points during his Sabres tenure, as the team struggled to staff a hardy right-defense corp – but Jokiharju could never make much of his minutes. He set a career-high of 20 points in 74 games last season, but had just six points in 42 games with Buffalo this year. Jokiharju should fill a much more manageable bottom-four role in Boston, playing behind shutdown defender Andrew Peeke at least.
Bruins Acquire Henri Jokiharju From Sabres
The Bruins have acquired defenseman Henri Jokiharju from the Sabres in exchange for the Oilers’ 2026 fourth-round pick, both teams announced. Darren Dreger of TSN was first to report the trade, which wasn’t certain to go through ahead of the deadline.
Boston’s buzzer-beater acquisition of Jokiharju will help fill in after they traded stout defensive defenseman Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Carlo’s absence leaves nearly 19 minutes of ice time every night up for grabs. The bulk of those minutes will likely go to Andrew Peeke, but it will be a battle between Ian Mitchell and Jokiharju for a role on the team’s second pair.
Jokiharju has filled a minimal role in Buffalo this season, with just six points, 12 penalty minutes, and a plus-six in 42 games. He has also scored three goals – exactly the same amount that he’s scored in each of the last five seasons. Jokiharju’s downward trend in scoring this year comes after a career performance last season, when he totaled a career-high 20 points and fought his way into a second-pair role through 74 games. He even rivaled top-pair utilization in 2021-22 and 2022-23, averaging over 21 minutes a night through 120 games between the pair of years.
Jokiharju, 25, is still finding his footing in the NHL after breaking into the league at age-19. He was a first-round selection by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2017 NHL Draft – and recorded 12 assists in 38 games with the team as a rookie in 2018-19. Chicago traded Jokiharju to the Sabres in exchange for Alex Nylander in the following summer, setting him up for an extended run as part of Buffalo’s desolate blue-line. Over six years in Buffalo, Jokiharju totaled 81 points in 351 games – just enough to earn a spot on Team Finland at 2025’s 4-Nations Face-Off, where he scored one goal in three games.
Jokiharju is signed at a $3.1MM cap hit through the end of the season. He will slot into Boston’s bottom-four and look to find a groove on the new-look Bruins, after six years with a struggling Sabres squad.
Team Finland Adds Henri Jokiharju, Urho Vaakanainen To 4-Nations Roster
Team Finland has added Buffalo Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju and New York Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to their 4-Nations Face-Off roster. The duo will fill in after Miro Heiskanen and Jani Hakanpaa each suffered injuries that will hold them out through February. They will join Esa Lindell (Dallas), Olli Maatta (Utah), Niko Mikkola (Florida), Rasmus Ristolainen (Philadelphia), and Juuso Valimaki (Utah) on Finland’s blue line.
Finland was down to the wire in finding replacements for their pair of injuries. There are only 11 active Finnish defensemen in the NHL. With this news, Team Finland has already invited nine of those names to the tournament – leaving Ville Heinola (Winnipeg) and Nikolas Matinpalo (Ottawa) as the only two to not receive a call from team general manager Jere Lehtinen. Heinola and Matinpalo are the only active Finns to play in the AHL this season, excluding Hakanpaa’s pair of minor league outings during a conditioning stint.
While their output pales in comparison to who they’re replacing, Finland will get a nice match of styles in Jokiharju and Vaakanainen. The former has been an aggressive two-way defenseman for the Sabres this season. He only has four points through 36 games this season, but has posted a +6 – just the second positive plus-minus of his seven-year NHL career. He posted his first, a +14, through 74 games last season – and coupled it with a career-high 20 points. Jokiharju is working to rediscover those numbers this season, but nonetheless brings stout neutral zone control to the Finnish lineup. While he controls north of the blue line, Vaakanainen will be tasked with filling Hakanpaa’s stout defensive role. Vaakanainen began this season with the Anaheim Ducks but joined the Rangers after just five games, as part of the deal that sent Jacob Trouba to the west coast. Vaakanainen has since stepped into 21 games with New York, filling a bottom pair role and recording five assists, 10 penalty minutes, and a +2. He’s also been a quietly impactful defender in New York state, bringing physicality and size to a Rangers blue line in need of both. He’ll bring the same attributes to the 4-Nations tournament, and hopefully blend with Jokiharju well enough to somewhat match the top-tier impact lost by Heiskanen’s injury.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Henri Jokiharju
Rather than wait for an arbitrator to sort out his next contract, the Buffalo Sabres, and Henri Jokiharju have agreed to a one-year, $3.1MM contract. The deal will keep Jokiharju in Buffalo for his sixth season with the team and he will become an unrestricted free agent upon expiration.
Jokiharju is coming off arguably the best individual season of his career as he scored three goals and 20 points in 74 games for the Sabres while averaging nearly 19 minutes of ice time per night. The Finnish defenseman has become much better defensively as he led the team with a +14 rating and finished the season with a 92.0% on-ice save percentage in all situations. He didn’t spend too much time this past season on Buffalo’s special teams but would be the first option in case of injury.
The deal also ensures that the Sabres will bring back a nearly identical defensive core to last season as they improved dramatically in keeping the puck out of their net. During the 2022-23 NHL season Buffalo finished 26th in the league in goals against per game with a 3.62 mark and watched it fall to 2.96 this past season which was good for 11th in the league. If the defensive can hold strong and the offense can rebound to the tenacity it showed during the 2022-23 season, the Sabres should be well positioned to earn a playoff spot this upcoming season.
Buffalo now has approximately $13.7MM left in cap space to work with and new contracts are needed for remaining restricted free agents Peyton Krebs, Beck Malenstyn, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. None of the three should eat much into that number especially if the Sabres can keep them on shorter-term contracts.