The Boston Bruins‘ most important defenseman is set to return, as head coach Joe Sacco confirmed that Charlie McAvoy will re-enter the lineup Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets, per Scott McLaughlin of WEEI Sports Radio.

Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy (upper body) will return to the lineup on Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets. Boston has been without its No. 1 defenseman for seven games as McAvoy has been recovering from an upper-body injury.

The Bruins will get a boost on their blue line on Thursday night, as defenseman Charlie McAvoy will rejoin the lineup when Boston hosts the Winnipeg Jets at TD Garden.

Auston Matthews will serve as captain for the United States in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, and his team is the only one involved without a glaring injury question to answer.

BOSTON – Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced today, January 30, that the team has added defenseman Charlie McAvoy to the active roster (Date of Injury: Jan. 11) and assigned forward Max Jones to Providence.

Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy will return to the lineup Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets, interim head coach Joe Sacco announced, according to Boston Sports Journal's Joe Haggerty.McAvoy missed the previous seven games due to a nagging upper-body injury.

The Bruins have not had Lindholm and McAvoy anchoring their D corps together since the former suffered a lower-body injury on Nov. 12 against the Blues.

Trying to bounce back from yet another brutal loss, the Bruins could be getting their best all-around defenseman back for Thursday's game against the Jets.

Matthews, 27, led the NHL with 69 goals last season and won the Hart Trophy in 2021-22, when he scored 106 points in 73 games.

“I don’t need to step in and be a rah-rah guy,” Matthews said Friday in a conference call after he was named captain the previous day, to be assisted by Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers and Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins. “A lot of these guys I’ve played with in junior and other tournaments. There’s good familiarity.

BOSTON — Two weeks ago team president Cam Neely said the Bruins would view the approaching trade deadline down two paths. Based on how they played from then until March 7, the team would make plans to be buyers and plans to be sellers, then decide which was the more prudent path.