Originally with Providence on a pro tryout agreement, the AHL Bruins have seen enough from Christian Wolanin to lock the veteran defender down with a one-year, AHL contract for the remainder of the 2025-26 season.

In action for seven games with Providence this season, the lefty-shooting Wolanin has posted one goal and eight points, along with a plus-5 rating. Wolanin even made sure his lone goal to date had some sizzle on it, as it was an overtime winner for the P-Bruins in a 4-3 final over Springfield this past weekend.

One of the more accomplished AHL defenders in recent seasons, Wolanin posted four goals and 40 points in 58 regular season games for the Canucks’ AHL affiliate a year ago. He later added two goals and 10 points in 17 playoff games on Abbotsford’s way to a Calder Cup championship. Overall, the Quebec-born Wolanin posted 15 goals and 124 points in 149 games for Abbotsford over the previous three seasons prior to joining Providence, and took home Eddie Shore Award honors as the AHL’s top defenseman in 2022-23.

The 30-year-old also has a prior connection to current Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, having played for the Kings during Sturm’s tenure with the franchise.

“I had him in L.A., and always liked him, and then we played against him in Abbotsford in the minors,” Sturm said following Monday’s practice in Brighton. “He’s good. I think he’s a perfect fit for that [Providence] team. He’s just very good on the power play, he’s one of the better guys carrying the puck out, and also shifting on the blue line on the power play especially. I think it’s a good signing, we talked about it before we signed him, and I think so far he’s doing very good.” 

Given that this is an AHL contract, Wolanin remains ineligible for an NHL recall.

But that can change with a simple signature on an NHL contract, which is something the club has proven willing to do if necessary.

A recent example of this playing out came during the 2023-24 season when Justin Brazeau was signed to an NHL contract from what was an AHL contract and was immediately called up to Boston. The B’s also went through a similar process with veteran forward Tyler Pitlick a season ago. It was a shockingly similar pathway to Wolanin’s current path with the organization, too, as Pitlick first joined the P-Bruins on a tryout before signing an AHL contract a month into his Providence tenure. Pitlick later signed an NHL contract with Boston, though he was never officially called up by the Bruins in what was ultimately a lost year for the club.

The Bruins, for what it’s worth, have already used 10 different defensemen this season, meaning a Wolanin signing could be a mere inevitability with the ways things are going in a rapid-fire, truncated NHL season in an Olympic year.

A 2015 fourth-round draft pick of Ottawa back in 2015, Wolanin has scored six goals and 23 points in 86 NHL games with the Sens, Kings, Sabres, and Canucks. He last played in the NHL in 2022-23, having a 16-game run with Vancouver.