Lohrei signed a bridge deal with the Bruins in late June.

• Player Overview
• Comparables
• Final Analysis

The Boston Bruins signed defenseman Mason Lohrei to a two-year contract extension, which carries a $3.2 million cap hit. Lohrei will be a restricted free agent when the deal expires in 2027.

Below, we take a look at what kind of value the Bruins are getting with the contract.

Player Overview

Selected 58th overall by the Boston Bruins in 2020, Mason Lohrei emerged as one of the organization’s top prospects over the next few years. Lohrei posted dominant numbers in his final USHL season with the Green Bay Gamblers in 2021, before putting together two strong years in the NCAA with Ohio State University.

Lohrei made the jump to professional hockey for the 2023-24 season, splitting time between the NHL and AHL. Then taking on a full-time role with the Bruins this past season, the defender posted an impressive 33 points in 77 games, while averaging over 19 minutes per game in ice time.

Lohrei ended up in a bigger role this year than was likely intended, given the injuries and trades impacting the team’s blue line. He could likely benefit from a bit more of a sheltered role in the short-term, but Lohrei has the tools to be a productive, top-four defensemen, and looks poised to become a long-term piece of the team’s defense group.

Comparables

Below we take a look at comparables for Lohrei’s two-year deal, to get a sense of whether it was an overpayment, an underpayment, or a fair deal. Comparables will generally include defensemen who were between 22 and 26 years old in the first year of their contract, with Lohrei now 24 years old.

Each table will include the comparable defenders’ production and ice time in their signing year, and over their career. It’ll also include their cap hit in the first year of their contract, and their adjusted cap hit on an $95.5M salary cap.

2 YEARS

In signing Lohrei to a bridge deal, a two-year contract made the most sense for the Bruins, given a three-year contract would have walked the defenseman right to unrestricted free agency in 2028. Below is a group of comparables for two-year contracts of defenders the same age, to analyze where Lohrei’s value should have landed within this range.

Based on the comps, Lohrei’s production and/or ice time would put him below the comps from adjusted cap hits of $4M or above. At the same time, there’s an argument that his value could’ve been higher than the $3.2M per year that he signed for.

Lohrei had much better production than the two comps below a $3.2M adjusted cap hit, in Dante Fabbro and Esa Lindell. He also had similar ice time to Fabbro, and while Lindell’s usage was quite a bit higher, he also had the least career experience of any defender listed, which could have resulted in a bit of a lower cap hit.

Then in terms of comps a bit higher, Lohrei had better numbers in every category than Matt Dumba ($3.34M adjusted cap hit). He also had better production than Cody Ceci ($3.66M adjusted cap hit) with fairly similar ice time, and was very similar to Travis Sanheim ($3.8M adjusted cap hit) in every category.

As a result, Lohrei’s cap hit comes in slightly lower than expected, with a strong argument that his value could’ve came in somewhere around the adjusted cap hits of Ceci and Sanheim, potentially somewhere around $3.75M per year.

While Lohrei signed a bridge deal, below is a look at what he could’ve potentially made on a longer deal.

6 YEARS

There’s been a bit of a shift away from defenders around Lohrei’s age taking six-year deals, but also there’s still a fairly large sample size over the last decade as a whole. Below are comps for a six-year contract.

Lohrei’s ice time was quite a step down from all comps at a $6.5M adjusted cap hit and above, so we can expect that if he had signed a six-year deal instead, he’d likely be coming in below that mark.

That said, he does compare quite well to Noah Hanifin ($5.9M adjusted cap hit), and had slightly higher numbers in every category. That said, Lohrei also had half the career experience of Hanifin at the time of signing, which could point to his value still being a little below that mark.

Lohrei does compare quite well to the four defenders between a $5.3M and $5.4M adjusted cap hit though, between Jakob Chychrun, Olli Maatta, Rasmus Andersson, and Damon Severson. So between these comps and Hanifin, Lohrei’s value on six-year deal could’ve landed somewhere around the $5.5M mark.

Final Analysis

A two-year deal makes sense for the Bruins, as the team will still hold the defender’s rights when his contract expires in 2027. His cap hit also comes in a little lower than expected, with his projected value based on the comps potentially being around the $3.75M mark.

If Lohrei had signed a longer-term deal, he could’ve obviously gotten a higher cap hit, with comps for a six-year deal pointing towards his value being around $5.5M per year at that term. That said, if Lohrei can round out his game a bit over the next two years and establish himself as a legitimate top-four defender over that period, he could end up in line for a much bigger deal in 2027.