The veteran winger will now return to the free agency market after his sixth PTO in seven seasons.

BRIGHTON, Mass. – The Boston Bruins released Alex Chiasson from his Professional Tryout Agreement that he signed with the squad in August, coach Jim Montgomery confirmed on Sunday.

The winger was absent from Sunday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena following Friday’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Flyers, where he skated on a line with Brett Harrison and Georgii Merkulov. He also got a look on the power play’s first unit with regulars Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha.

Through two preseason in-game performances, Chiasson did not log a point across 20:48 of total ice time and had a minus-1 rating. The veteran, who turned 33 years old today, was battling for a spot in the highly contested bottom six, and younger players have simply outplayed him the past week or so – namely Marc McLaughlin and Johnny Beecher, who practiced with Group B on Sunday.

“I don’t know if he came up short, I think it’s more [that] a lot of guys are having really good camps,” Montgomery said. “It’s just coming down to numbers. We felt that this would give him the best opportunity to maybe catch on somewhere else.”

Chiasson’s PTO with the Bruins was the sixth of his 11-year NHL career, and he’ll now hit the free agency market once again – either waiting it out or making a tough decision on the longevity of his hockey future.

While with the Detroit Red Wings in the 2022-23 season, Chiasson appeared in 20 NHL games but spent a majority of the year with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, where he posted 20 points in 29 games.

The PTO limbo is not a fun one and Chiasson acknowledged that ahead of Bruins camp this year.

“It sucks. It’s tough,” Chiasson said on Sept. 8. “You just don’t really know where you’re going to end up…I have a good support system at home; my wife’s been great, but it doesn’t get any easier. I think as I’ve gotten older I realized that – I’ve always said this – it’s a privilege to play in the NHL.”

The Bruins have begun to tighten things up now ten days out from opening night at TD Garden against the Chicago Blackhawks. Sunday’s practice was the first time this training camp that Group A and Group B had a clear divide – one comprising the potential starting lineup and the other featuring future Providence players and older guys on the bubble.

“With the two groups the way that they’ve been going, just to have them separated for the first time because you want to see how players respond,” Montgomery said. “You want to see how the first group responds, and even more importantly, the second group. Who keeps pushing?”

Danton Heinen, who is also on a PTO and played on the first line with Brad Marchand and Matt Poitras on Friday, remains on the Bruins roster and practiced with Group B on Sunday. While he wasn’t skating with the big guns, we’ll see what Heinen has left to show the coaching staff that he’s in fact still pushing.