As the Bruins trimmed down to their final 23-man roster last week, Don Sweeney already knew who his first six defensemen would be. What he needed to choose was a seventh defenseman who would best complement the Bruins’ D group when someone needed a night off or was dealing with an injury.
Sweeney decided on keeping 25-year-old, left-shot defenseman Jordan Harris in Boston to fill that role.
Harris started out the season as a healthy scratch. He didn’t take the ice for the Bruins’ first game of the season in Washington and watched on in street clothes from the ninth floor as Boston hosted Chicago for their home opener the next night.
But, an early injury on the Bruins’ back end soon led to Harris’ first game action as a Bruin.
Harris got his first chance to play when Hampus Lindholm sustained a lower-body injury in the Bruins’ second game of the season and missed the team’s third and fourth games.
In his two games, Harris put together two solid performances, holding up defensively and showing he could add a spark to the Bruins’ offense. In those games, Harris assisted on a goal by Pavel Zacha against the Sabres and scored his first goal as a Bruin on Monday against the Lightning. He has a plus-1 rating through two games.
“It’s really cool,” Harris, a Massachusetts native, said after scoring his first goal. “It’s something that I’ve dreamed about. It’s something I’ve seen about a thousand times on TV. It’s really special, especially to be able to do it here at home.”
Now that Harris has had a chance to show off what he could bring to the Bruins’ blue line, the question is: Can he hold on to a regular spot in the lineup?
Barring any unexpected setbacks, Lindholm should be back in the lineup in the near future. The left side of the Bruins’ defense seems pretty locked in, with Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov and Mason Lohrei. So, Harris would likely have to play his off-side and take away a spot from Henri Jokiharju, who is currently alongside Harris as the Bruins’ defensemen averaging the least amount of ice time.
Harris does have some experience with playing a large chunk of games in a season.Though Harris has never played a full 82-game season in his NHL career, he played 65 games in the 2022-23 season with Montreal, putting up 17 points. He averaged 18:39 in time on ice that season, which is akin to the ice time of Brandon Carlo and Andrew Peeke last season.
He played 56 games for the Canadiens the following year in the 2023-24 season before trailing off to a lower, 33-game workload in Columbus last season.
When Harris’ contract expired in Columbus at the end of last season, he decided to sign with the team he rooted for as a kid.
Harris grew up 35 miles north of Boston in Haverhill and played out his four years of college at Northeastern. When the Blue Jackets declined to issue him a qualifying offer, he signed a one-year deal with the Bruins with the low cap hit of $825,000.
Harris' cheap contract and past NHL experience made him a good candidate to make Boston’s roster this season, and now it’s time to see whether he can be more than just the team’s seventh defenseman.