The calendar may have flipped to 2026, but the Boston Bruins were unfortunately not able to leave the injury bug in 2025. Hampus Lindholm did not play in their recent matchup against the Seattle Kraken, and has been added to the injured reserve list. Recent comments from Marco Sturm also indicate that it may be a longer term issue.
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Lindholm is an essential part of the Bruins’ blue line, so this is a very detrimental loss, especially following a particularly rough month of December that saw this team go on six-game losing streak. Prior to his injury, he had three goals and 14 points in 34 games. His importance to the blue line was on full display with his jury last season limiting him to less than 20 games in 2024-25. The blue line was not the same without him, and his return was considered a big factor in them being able to be competitive and potentially reach the playoffs again in 2025-26.
In the wake of Lindholm’s absence, the entire blue line will have to step it up to make up for his absence, but there are two players in particular that will have higher expectations and real opportunity in his absence.
Henri Jokiharju
As this season has gone, when one person returns from injury, someone else gets added to the list. When Lindholm was added to injured reserve this week, Henri Jokiharju was activated. He was added to the list back on Nov. 28 with a lower-body injury and missed 16 games. In his return against the Kraken, he played 16 minutes and registered zero points, one takeaway, one giveaway, and two shot attempts. Nothing extraordinary, but nothing awful either.
Henri Jokiharju, Boston Bruins (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
In 26 games this season, he has six assists and is a minus-five. He was the main addition brought into this blue line after joining the team at last season’s deadline and then signing a three-year extension last summer that carries an average annual value (AAV) of $3 million.
Since joining the Bruins, he has primarily been on the third-pairing on the depth chart. The 2017 first-round draft pick hasn’t stood out very much so far in his tenure in Boston, even for a guy who is primarily a stay-at-home defenseman. He was also a healthy scratch for a game earlier this season. With him being the biggest “addition” to the blue line in 2025-26 (even though he played a handful of games last season), there was always going to be increased attention on him and so far, he hasn’t been entirely impressive.
But now is a chance for him to step it up. The Bruins desperately need help on defense. They’ve struggled all season with transitional defense and playing responsibly in their own zone. Jokiharju has not been a big point scoring, puck moving defenseman throughout his NHL career, and has been known for a more stay-at-home presence on the ice with a high hockey IQ and puck moving abilities. But this is exactly what the team needs out of him, just at a higher level than what he has demonstrated so far this season.
The Bruins need him to be a solid, stabilizing presence on the blue line that could help clean up the mistakes on the ice and stop the team from constantly leaving goaltender Jeremy Swayman out to dry. If he can step up and be that guy, it would go a long way in helping this team weather another major injury blow.
Mason Lohrei
It has been an interesting season so far for Mason Lohrei, who similarly to Jokiharju, has spent some time in 2025-26 as a healthy scratch. In his three seasons in the league so far, the 24-year-old has made a name for himself as a defenseman who is great at joining the rush and generating offense from the blue line. He stepped up a lot in the second half of last season following injuries to Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, and finished with the most points amongst defensemen. He certainly has the potential to be a Torey Krug type of player, who was incredibly impactful for the Bruins throughout much of the 2010s.
But Lohrei has been also a defensive liability. He was a minus-43 last season despite starting only 38.5% of his shifts in the defensive zone, one of the worst amongst defensemen across the entire NHL. Plus/minus may be a flawed stat, but the eye test backed things up, he consistently struggled with mistakes in his own zone, contributing to too many opportunities for opponents. While he will never be an entirely defensive defenseman, nor does he have to be, he really needed to make improvements in his defensive game going into this season.
Boston Bruins Mason Lohrei (Stan Szeto-Imagn Images)
It’s been an up and down process so far, as he was a healthy scratch earlier this season as an attempt by Sturm to send him a message about playing more responsibly. But he is currently at plus-five and has recently made positive improvements, one of the minor bright spots from this recent road trip they just wrapped up.
Lohrei has previously shown that he can step up in the absence of others, and already, he had an offensive impact in the team’s first game without Lindholm, scoring a goal in their loss to the Kraken. If he can continue to be more defensively responsible while increasing his offensive output, it will go a long way for Boston in this upcoming stretch.
Bruins’ Lingering Issues
The Bruins managed to hold things together when Lindholm was injured earlier this season, and the hope will be that they can do it again in this next stretch. Even prior to his injury, this team was struggling defensively with too many turnovers, struggles to clear the puck out of their own zone, and bad penalties putting them on the penalty kill more than they would like. There will need to be a collective team effort to improve in these areas leading up to the Olympic pause in February.
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Jokiharju and Lohrei are two players given more responsibility and opportunity in the wake of Lindholm’s injury, and will hopefully be able to step their games up on the blue line. But this does not necessarily mean they are the only ones that can fix the Bruins’ lingering issues.
We’re now past the halfway point in the season with the Bruins sitting in seventh in the division. It’s very close still and if they can string a couple of wins together, they should rise up the standings fairly quickly. But time will start running out before we know it.
