Jim Montgomery explains Bruins' surprising cut of Marc McLaughlin

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The Bruins made nine more cuts on Thursday as they move closer toward setting their opening night roster. They sent Marc McLaughlin, Johnny Beecher, Fabian Lysell, Jack Ahcan and Kyle Keyser to AHL Providence, while also waiving Joona Koppanen, Vinni Lettieri, Dan Renouf and Keith Kinkaid. The latter four are expected to be assigned to Providence if they clear waivers.

Bruins' cuts include a big surprise

The most surprising name there, by far, is McLaughlin. The 23-year-old Billerica native had seemingly done enough to win an opening night job with a strong preseason that has seen him record two goals and two assists in four games, tying him for the team lead in preseason scoring. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Bruins have had 57.8% of shot attempts, 62.3% of expected goals, and a 4-1 advantage in actual goals.

McLaughlin always faced an uphill battle given that he can be sent down without going through waivers, while some other players battling for bottom-six roles would need to clear waivers if they got cut. On the surface, it’s hard not to think that played a factor in McLaughlin’s demotion, whether it’s fair or not.

Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said Thursday afternoon that there were actual hockey reasons for sending McLaughlin down and keeping players like Nick Foligno, Trent Frederic, Tomas Nosek, Chris Wagner, A.J. Greer and Jakub Lauko over him.

“There’s a lot that goes into it,” Montgomery said. “He had a great camp. We’re really happy with his development. There’s certain areas of his game that we really want him to focus on down in Providence, details and physicality and stuff. His offensive production, his tenacity on pucks, his ability to score, all that has shown through. He’s gonna be a big part of our future. We do also have great depth. So, right now it’s what we think is best for the Boston Bruins moving forward.”

On the one hand, that’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. McLaughlin is not a finished product, and there absolutely are some things he can work on in Providence. On the other, the Bruins have insisted that the best players would play, and cutting McLaughlin in favor of other forwards who haven’t looked as good this preseason doesn’t square with that.

Of course, it’s possible that McLaughlin’s time in Providence is short-lived, as he would seemingly be at or near the top of the list of call-ups in the event of injury or poor performance.

The Bruins need to be down to no more than 23 players by opening night on Wednesday, and are now very close to that depending on the Taylor Hall and Matt Grzelcyk injury situations. Both practiced in non-contact jerseys on Thursday and appear to be ahead of their original timelines.

The Bruins have one more preseason game Saturday night against the Devils at TD Garden.

Here were the lines and pairings in Thursday’s practice:

Nick Foligno - Patrice Bergeron - Jake DeBrusk
Pavel Zacha - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
A.J. Greer - Charlie Coyle - Craig Smith
Trent Frederic - Tomas Nosek - Jakub Lauko
Taylor Hall* - Jack Studnicka - Chris Wagner

Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Mike Reilly - Jakub Zboril
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton
Matt Grzelcyk* - Anton Stralman

Jeremy Swayman
Linus Ullmark

* = non-contact jersey

Featured Image Photo Credit: Getty Images