Ohio State Professional Athletes

Two Ohio State alumni are drawing early-season attention in the NHL — but for very different reasons. Mason Lohrei is quietly building a case as one of Boston's reliable defensive pieces, while Jakub Dobes is fighting through inconsistency and a confidence crisis in Montreal's increasingly complicated goaltending room.

Lohrei Holds His Own in Boston

Through the first two weeks of the 2026-27 season, Lohrei has done what good defensemen do: stay in the background and let the results speak. The Bruins blueliner picked up an assist and finished plus-one in Boston's 6-3 win over the Sharks on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and was part of a 5-1 dismantling of the Flyers on Oct. 11 — a game in which Fraser Minten, Pavel Zacha, and Lohrei himself found the scoresheet as Boston improved to 4-2. The Bruins have won back-to-back games and look like a team with functional depth. Lohrei, steady and unspectacular, is part of why.

Dobes in a Confidence Spiral

The story in Montreal is harder to watch. Dobes entered the season with a contract extension already in hand — GM Kent Hughes locked him up over the summer alongside several other core young players — and opened the campaign with a strong showing, stopping 26 of 28 shots in a Sept. 29 win over Toronto. That felt like a statement.

What followed did not.

By Oct. 14 against Washington, Dobes allowed five goals on 23 shots, posting a .783 save percentage in a 5-4 loss to the Capitals. The performance was described by Sportsnet as "early-season proof of how elusive consistency can be at his position." The Hockey News went further, noting that Dobes is "lacking confidence" to start the season — a damaging characterization for a young goalie trying to claim a crease.

The situation in Montreal has grown more layered: veteran Samuel Montembeault is injured and coming off a poor season, which theoretically should open the door for Dobes. Instead, it's been Jacob Fowler — the unexpected piece — who has stepped up to complicate the depth chart. Dobes played again Oct. 13 and Oct. 17 against the Sabres, though the stat lines from those outings were not available at time of publication.

For a goalie signed to be part of Montreal's long-term foundation, the early returns are a cause for concern, even if the sample is small.

Elsewhere: Joshua Nearing Return

Ohio State winger Dakota Joshua hasn't played a game yet for Toronto this season due to an upper-body injury that landed him on LTIR, but there's good news on the horizon. The Maple Leafs assigned Joshua to a conditioning loan, and he's eligible to return to the lineup as soon as Oct. 22 against the Rangers. It's a minor update, but Leafs fans will welcome the depth his physical game provides when he's back in the fold.

The early Buckeye ledger: one quietly productive defenseman in Boston, one goalie searching for steadiness in Montreal, and a winger on the mend in Toronto. The Dobes situation remains the one to watch — how Montreal manages its crease over the next month could define the franchise's season trajectory and his own development arc.

Through the first week of the 2026-27 NHL season, the most compelling Ohio State story isn't in a goalie crease or a power-play unit — it's on the Boston Bruins' blue line, where Mason Lohrei is quietly building a case that he belongs in the starting lineup for the long haul.

Lohrei's week doubled as a highlight reel. On Thursday, he put his name on the scoresheet as the Bruins dismantled the Utah Mammoth 6-1, part of a six-goal offensive explosion that saw Boston lead 6-0 through two periods. David Pastrnak stole most of the headlines with two goals and two assists, but Lohrei's contribution underscored his growing role in the lineup.

Then came Saturday, and Lohrei did it again.

The Ohio State product scored and posted a +2 rating in Boston's 5-1 throttling of the Philadelphia Flyers — a Bruins squad that improved to 4-2 on the season. Fraser Minten led the way with a goal and two assists, but Lohrei's steady two-way effort in the win was impossible to overlook. Boston has now won back-to-back games, and Lohrei has been a contributor in both.

It's not just the points. Per observations from Boston.com following the Bruins' first road trip of the season, Lohrei is actively making "a valid case to remain in the Bruins' starting lineup" — the kind of editorial notice that doesn't get written about fringe players. At the NHL level, that distinction matters. Roster spots on a Bruins team with Stanley Cup aspirations don't come cheap, and Lohrei is earning his.

For Ohio State alumni tracking former Buckeyes across the NHL, there are 12 names scattered across the league this season — from Jakub Dobes tending goal for the Montreal Canadiens to Dakota Joshua and Cole McWard suiting up for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But right now, none are generating the kind of week-over-week momentum that Lohrei is building in Boston.

The sample size is small — six games into an 82-game season — but trends reveal themselves early, and what Lohrei is putting together is a trend worth watching. A defenseman who can produce offensively, hold his own rating-wise, and stick in the lineup on a contending team is exactly the kind of player NHL rosters are built around.

Ohio State's pipeline to the NHL has never been richer. The question is whether any of its other active alumni can match Lohrei's early-season urgency. For now, the Bruins' blueliner from Columbus is the Buckeye to watch.