The Boston Bruins have activated forward Matthew Poitras from the non-roster injury list, a move that is expected to send Michael Eyssimont to the American Hockey League.
With the roster already full before Poitras was cleared, the club is likely to reassign Eyssimont to Providence after he cleared waivers on Monday afternoon, according to a team announcement and reporting from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Poitras, 22, has been out with a lower-body injury since September 22. The setback limited him to one preseason game, in which he recorded an assist.
Even so, general manager Don Sweeney said before the regular season that Poitras would get an opportunity at the NHL level once he was healthy. Monday’s activation is the first concrete step toward that chance.
His path in Boston has been uneven. Injuries elsewhere on the roster helped him make the opening-night lineup in 2023-24.
He produced five goals and 13 points in 27 games, with a plus-3 rating, while averaging just over 14 minutes a night.
After leaving to play for Canada at the 2024 world juniors, he appeared in only six more games before shoulder surgery ended his rookie year in January.
He returned the following fall and again made the team out of camp, but a slow start led Boston to send him to Providence for more development. There he scored 17 goals and 41 points in 40 games.
Last season, he stayed in the AHL almost entirely, finishing with 13 goals and 44 points in 69 games. A late-January recall produced a single goal in three NHL appearances.
That mixed record left his role unsettled through the summer. Poitras remained a restricted free agent until September 16, when the Bruins signed him to a one-year, two-way deal worth $850,000 at the NHL level.
The contract and Monday’s activation suggest the organization is prepared to give him a longer look than the brief stints he has had so far, even if his place in the lineup is still to be determined.
Eyssimont is the player most likely to make room. The five-year veteran was placed on waivers Sunday and cleared them Monday.
He is in the second year of a two-year, $2.9 million contract and scored eight goals and 18 points in 56 games last season.
His reassignment would close the roster spot created by Poitras’s return and shift a depth forward to Providence as the Bruins sort out their early-season lineup.
