Bruins catch break on Monday’s NHL waiver wire – 98.5 The Sports Hub

As Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, team president Cam Neely, and CEO Charlie Jacobs took to the podium at the Verizon Tower adjacent to TD Garden on Monday afternoon, Sweeney was hooked to his iPhone.

The timing of Sweeney & Co.’s scheduled press conference lined up exactly at the same time as word on the NHL’s waiver-wire results, and Sweeney was clearly trying to assess where the Bruins were with their recently waived players. And, more specifically, whether or the four players waived down to the minors by the club on Sunday were still with the organization.

And it was a best case scenario result for the Bruins, too, as every Bruin placed on waivers indeed cleared and was assigned to AHL Providence.

That group, of course, was headlined by goaltender Michael DiPietro making his way through the waiver wire without a claim on his name.

DiPietro, originally acquired from the Canucks in the 2022 trade that sent Jack Studnicka to Vancouver, has spent the last three seasons in the Bruins organization. In Providence, DiPietro thrived, with a 45-17-7 record, along with a .924 slash percentage and 2.24 goals against average in 71 games.

DiPietro’s 2024-25 season for the Baby B’s was his best yet, too, with a 26-8-5 record, .927 slash percentage and 2.05 goals against average. That campaign, which did feature a brief run with DiPietro on the Boston bench as a backup but without any NHL appearances for the B’s, saw DiPietro named to the AHL First Team and was also the winner of the Baz Bastien Memorial Award, awarded annually to the AHL’s leading goaltender.

Speaking after practice on Monday, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said that the team did not give much consideration to carrying three goaltenders into the regular season. That ultimately would’ve been the only way to avoid waiving DiPietro ahead of the final round of training camp cuts.

“We know Mikey’s an excellent goalie [and] we don’t want to lose him, but [Joonas Korpisalo and Jeremy Swayman] were great,” Sturm said.

What made DiPietro’s clearing of waivers a little bit surprising was that this year’s training camp waiver-wire activity was by all means headlined by goaltending movement; Carolina claimed ex-Bruins netminder Brandon Bussi off waivers by the Panthers, Toronto claimed Cayden Primeau away from the Canadiens, and the Sabres claimed Colten Ellis from the Blues.

The other ‘surprise’ came with Czech-born winger Matej Blumel successfully sent down to Providence without a claim to swipe him out of town.

In action for four games this preseason (and getting some extensive and seemingly valuable camp minutes working on the second power-play unit), Blumel had just one goal. But the lefty-shooting Blumel, recruited to Boston by David Pastrnak this past summer, also led the team in shots (14), shot attempts (25), individual scoring chances for (13), and was tied for the third-most individual high-danger scoring chances (four).

For a team that still struggles with shot volume and shot generation, Blumel seemed like a potentially valuable bullet to keep in the chamber. But ultimately, he needed more results to stick, according to Sturm.

Blumel’s trip to the waiver wire and ultimately out of Boston and down to Providence came as a result of the Bruins opting to keep Johnny Beecher and Jeffrey Viel on their roster. Sturm admitted that Beecher’s ability to kill penalties and win faceoffs is what extended his stay on the B’s roster, while Viel is looked at as energy guy who “probably won’t” be a lineup regular.

Sturm and the Bruins will open their 2025-26 regular season Wednesday night in Washington when they go head to head with the Capitals.