Bruins Make Final Cuts; Middle-Six Decision Looms

On Oct. 5 the Bruins made final roster cuts, reducing camp toward a likely 23-man opening-night roster and assigning Matt Poitras to AHL Providence while placing Matej Blumel, Michael DiPietro, Alex Steeves and Jonathan Aspirot on waivers. Poitras will start in Providence but remains a near-term NHL call-up candidate, and DiPietro — coming off a strong year in Providence — could be claimed on waivers. Boston returned to practice with coach Marco Sturm rolling out practice lines and planning to use remaining preseason games against Washington and New York to finalize the roster; Casey Mittelstadt practiced after a lower-body issue and is expected to be available for the preseason finale. A central decision remains where to use Pavel Zacha — at center or left wing — because moving him to center would likely push Fraser Minten to Providence and reshape the middle six. The top line (Pastrnak–Lindholm–Geekie) and fourth line (Kuraly–Kastelic–Eyssimont) look settled, but cohesion in the middle six remains unresolved with competition among Mittelstadt, Zacha, Viktor Arvidsson, Tanner Jeannot and waiver-exempt depth candidates.