The Boston Bruins placed forwards Patrick Brown and A.J. Greer on waivers Sunday, just about solidifying their forward group for opening night.
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With Brown and Greer cut, the Bruins now have 13 forwards left in NHL camp: Johnny Beecher, Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk, Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie, Danton Heinen, Jakub Lauko, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Matt Poitras, James van Riemsdyk, and Pavel Zacha.
Barring an unforeseen move, it would appear that those will be their 13 forwards to open the season, which begins Wednesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. That could give them lines that look like this:
James van Riemsdyk - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand - Charlie Coyle - Jake DeBrusk
Trent Frederic - Matt Poitras - Morgan Geekie
Milan Lucic - Johnny Beecher - Jakub Lauko
Danton Heinen
The one piece of business still to take care of with that group is signing Heinen to a contract since he remains on a professional tryout as of Sunday afternoon. After Sunday's moves, the Bruins will have about $1.3 million in cap space to work with, according to our calculations, which should be more than enough to sign Heinen.
Heinen winning a job after arriving at camp with nothing guaranteed is obviously one big story here. The other is Beecher beating out Brown for the fourth-line center job. The Bruins signed Brown to a two-year deal on the first day of free agency this summer with that job in mind, but Beecher, Boston's 2019 first-round pick, simply outplayed him this preseason.
Greer won a job out of camp last year and went on to play 61 regular-season games, but he faced a steeper climb this time around after the Bruins brought back Milan Lucic, creating duplication in the left-wing toughness department. Heinen and Lauko bring different skillsets and more versatility to the table.
The deadline to finalize initial rosters and be cap-compliant is Monday at 5 p.m. The Bruins would appear to have one more cut to make on defense, but they could actually buy themselves an extra couple days if they don't sign Heinen before then.
As of Sunday afternoon, the Bruins still have eight defensemen in camp: Brandon Carlo, Derek Forbort, Matt Grzelcyk, Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei, Charlie McAvoy, Ian Mitchell, and Kevin Shattenkirk.
If they're going to get down to seven before Monday afternoon, the decision is really whether to keep the 22-year-old Lohrei in Boston to start the season or send him down to Providence for more seasoning. If he makes the team and they have to cut another D, Mitchell could be the odd man out unless there's a trade.
In other Bruins transaction news, forwards Jesper Boqvist and Oskar Steen and defenseman Jakub Zboril all cleared waivers after being cut on Saturday. They have been assigned to Providence.