Bruins make 4 early roster moves on Saturday morning.

The Boston Bruins have made a number of significant changes to their roster on Saturday morning, with a total of 4 roster moves taking place.

The first and least surprising bit of news is that veteran defenseman Hampus Lindholm has been placed on injured reserve, with the news coming after head coach Jim Montgomery revealed earlier this week that Lindholm is expected to miss significant time.

"Hampus is lower body injury, it's gonna be weeks," said Montgomery this week. "Weeks is plural so don't ask me next week please."

Lindholm was injured while blocking a shot against the St. Louis Blues earlier in the week.

The Bruins have also assigned forward Patrick Brown to the American Hockey League's Providence Bruins. Brown played his first National Hockey League game of the season this past Thursday in the Bruins blowout loss against the Dallas Stars, a game in which Brown played just under 13 minutes and finished with a plus minus rating of -1.

In a pair of corresponding moves the Bruins are also making two additions to their roster, calling up former first round pick Riley Tufte from the AHL's Providence Bruins as well as forward Georgii Merkulov.

Tufte has appeared in 6 games for Providence this season, scoring 3 goals and registering 1 assist for a total of 4 points. Merkulov on the other hand has produced at nearly a point per game pace for the Providence Bruins with 2 goals and 9 assists over his first 12 games, for a total of 11 points on the season thus far.

Obviously the injury to Lindholm is a less than ideal scenario for the Bruins but I suspect that there will be considerable excitement from fans at the prospect of seeing the undrafted Merkulov showcase his skills at the NHL level after such a strong start to the season in the AHL.