Tuesday was an eventful day for the Bruins, which forced Boston to take on a fair share of roster management the following morning.
Before their loss to the Nashville Predators, the Bruins traded Trent Frederic and announced captain Brad Marchand was week-to-week due to an upper-body injury. Those events led to Georgii Merkulov and Jeffrey Viel suiting up for the Black and Gold’s 6-3 loss at TD Garden.
However, Merkulov and Viel now are both bound for Providence, the team announced in a press release shared shortly before noon Wednesday. In corresponding moves, the Bruins recalled forwards Patrick Brown and Riley Tufte as well as defenseman Ian Mitchell from their AHL affiliate. Forward Vinni Lettieri also was recalled on an emergency basis.
Brown, Tufte and Mitchell have played a combined nine games for Boston this season to date, while Lettieri has suited up for eight. Of that group, Mitchell was the skater who most recently saw playing time for Joe Sacco’s club when he took the ice for both games in the Bruins’ back-to-back last weekend.
Of course, Don Sweeney and company could be bound for more roster tweaking as the week rolls on. The NHL trade deadline is set for Friday at 3 p.m. ET.
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