Bruins acquire rights to Franklin native Michael Callahan from Coyotes

Nothing like a trade at 10 PM to wrap up a quiet Tuesday!

The Bruins announced this evening that they’ve acquired the rights to defenseman Michael Callahan from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2024 draft.

Callahan himself was a fifth-round pick by Arizona back in 2018, so it ends up being a pretty even swap.

Not to get too snarky about the move, but this one checks almost all of the Don Sweeney boxes:

• Decent size (6’2”, 200 pounds) for a defenseman
• American who plays college hockey
• Franklin, Massachusetts native

Another Large, Local, College Son.

Callahan is a left-shot defenseman who played his prep hockey at Roxbury Latin before playing in the USHL and eventually moving on to Providence College, where he’s been the team’s captain for the past three seasons.

Now a senior, Callahan had his most productive season as a sophomore, recording 28 points (5G-23A) in 34 games.

This season, Callahan has 3G-11A-14PTS totals through 34 games.

Our compatriots at Five for Howling placed Callahan at #20 in their “Top 25 Under 25” prospects series back in the fall.

It’s worth noting that the Bruins acquired Callahan’s rights, and that they’d still need to sign him to some kind of entry-level or minor-league deal.

Given that 1) he’s a local kid and 2) the Bruins aren’t the Coyotes, it seems far more likely that Callahan will ink a deal here than in Arizona.

While this move won’t have a major impact at the NHL level for a few years, if at all, it’s another depth piece that can help the Bruins organizationally, especially as guys like Jakub Zboril, Urho Vaakanainen, and Jack Ahcan aim for more regular NHL duty.

(I should have headlined this post “Bruins acquire defenseman from Coyotes whose last name starts with C” just for clicks, huh?)

In any case, welcome to the organization!