During the 2016-17 season, Sam Ballard became the first defenseman on Culver Military Academy’s U16 team to injure his collarbone. Shortly afterwards another defender, Declan Carlile, suffered the same injury.

Culver was in trouble.

Luckily, a lifelong forward volunteered to move to defense. The Culver coaches weren’t expecting a savior. Mason Lohrei was a skilled but lanky 15-year-old who, if you can call it that, had the misfortune of being in the midst of a growth spurt that had his legs screaming, Uncle.

“If you’ve seen me skate, then…” the Boston Bruins defenseman said with a laugh. “People said, ‘He can’t skate.’ It was just that I had grown so much. I’ve fit in all my life. I was just like everyone else skating out there. I didn’t fly past anyone. But the first year I went to school there, I was… a baby deer.”

As a striker, Löhri’s strength was playing with the puck. Whether he could track it and keep it on his stick was another question.

“Wasn’t the best skater. Kind of gentle, if I’m honest,” says Lohrei. “I liked having the puck on my stick, making plays and pulling guys.”

Despite his shortcomings, there were several factors in Lohrei’s favor when he moved from striker to defense. He was smart. He really wanted to learn.

And a critical mentor was willing to teach him.

Mason Lohrei will play for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2023. (Richard T. Gagnon/Getty Images)

First and foremost, skating

The Bruins are excited about Lohrei. The 23-year-old defenseman scored 13 points in 41 games as a professional in his first year in 2023/24.

On Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, Lohrei plans to be the No. 2 left guard along with Brandon Carlo. He will quarterback the No. 2 power play unit. The 1.90 meter tall and 100 kilogram defender is designed for the offensive.

“The sky is the limit for him,” says Charlie McAvoy. “He’s a great, great boy. He shows up and works. Really, the sky is the limit. I think he’s going to be an incredible hockey player. He already is.”

In some ways, Steve Palmer couldn’t have predicted that Lohrei would follow his current trajectory when he saw the 14-year-old put the blade on ice. Lohrei still had a long way to go.

“He grew very quickly,” recalls Palmer, then Culver’s U-18 coach. “It was difficult for him to skate properly because he didn’t have much strength in his legs. But his balance and edges were phenomenal. Because he’s been working on it the whole time.”

At this point, Palmer knew Lohrei well. Young Mason had spent summers at Culver, where father Dave Lohrei, a longtime coach, ran the rink. Palmer identified the coach’s son as many things: rink rat, experienced player, coachable kid.

All of these factors signaled to Palmer that Lohrei was eager to grind.

“Mason is a scholar in his ability to make physical correction,” said Palmer, a four-year player at Clarkson University. “I train a lot in tennis and hockey. My parents were Olympic gymnastics coaches. That’s why I notice body movements. And if you tell Mason to move his hands an inch further, he can move them an inch further. Where some children can’t do that. They can’t take correction very well. When you tell Mason, “Okay, you have to do this,” he understands. He can immediately implement a hip movement or something similar. He’s very body conscious.”

When Lohrei raised his hand in defense, he was already in a running program devised by Palmer. Palmer put Lohrei on a sliding board off the ice. Before training, they reviewed the video to improve Lohrei’s stride length, the depth of his stance and his edges. Lohrei was regularly in the weight room to fill his fawn legs with muscle.

Lohrei became stronger. At the same time he improved his technique. It became clear that the striker would not return to his natural position. He was under too much pressure by picking up the pace from behind.

“There was an opportunity for more ice time at that position,” Palmer said. “He blossomed when he was on the ice more. He just kept getting better and better. He understands the game very well. I would say a defenseman needs to have a slightly better understanding of hockey in general than a winger. He was able to really understand the position from an offensive perspective very quickly.”

On defense, Lohrei had more time to make plays. He could take a breath to process his surroundings and determine his next move. He particularly liked the fact that as a defender he could choose the time and situation in which he went on the offensive.

In his senior year, Lohrei received a scholarship to Ohio State. The Buckeyes wanted him to continue his development with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL before coming to Columbus.

In the middle of his first USHL season, one NHL team showed particular interest.

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Projecting the future

Dave Lohrei likes to tell the story of his son’s draft experience. It was the second round of 2020. The draft was virtual. When the Bruins selected Lohrei at No. 58, no one, including NHL Network analyst Brian Lawton, had an introductory paragraph about the 19-year-old, let alone a book.

“I thought Brian Lawton was going to swallow his microphone,” remembers Dave Lohrei.

Lawton wasn’t the only surprised party. The Bruins had made a mistake by recruiting a kid who had only played defense for three full seasons.

“Some nights he probably thinks he’s still playing forward,” said general manager Don Sweeney, commenting on Lohrei’s tendency to wander. “That’s part of what we like about him, to be honest. He has confidence in his abilities. We have seen a real upward trend in a short period of time. His openness to the coaches he played for. He was determined to continue learning without losing confidence in the skills he believed he had.”

After a second training season with Green Bay, Lohrei moved up to Ohio State. As a freshman, he scored 29 points, second on the team behind future Bruins teammate Georgii Merkulov. Lohrei scored 32 points as a sophomore before turning pro.

Lohrei acclimatized earlier than planned. One of the reasons the Bruins let Matt Grzelcyk go this summer was because Lohrei was projected to be a long-term left guard player.

But Lohrei’s rookie season was just the beginning.

“I want to be great,” says Lohrei. “I want the Stanley Cup. I want to be a top defender in the league.”

So Lohrei returned to Indiana this summer. He had work to do.

Mason Lohrei knew he had a big summer ahead of him heading into the 2024-25 season. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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Explosive use

Lohrei is a handful for opponents when he reaches cruising speed. His hockey sense, creativity and fearlessness make him an offensive threat even in chaos.

Reaching this pace is still a work in progress.

With an eye toward more speed, Lohrei trained with Palmer at Culver this offseason. They focused on Lohrei’s forward and backward acceleration. During small-sided drills, Palmer encouraged Lohrei to make plays when opponents were in his jersey, in his arms or on his stick. After the defenseman freed himself, Palmer reminded Lohrei to target the pucks into the net.

Lohrei absorbed everything.

“His approach to getting better is exemplary,” says Palmer. “When we work together in the summer, he doesn’t do a single exercise that isn’t 100 percent, where he tries on everything we’re doing, every skating we’re doing, he does it like a repeat offender,” his last representative. “

Lohrei could be faster. He could use more speed in reverse. Given the small sample size of his blue-line resume, Lohrei could improve with more experience.

If Lohrei puts all of that on his skill, intelligence and competitiveness, Palmer has one word for what kind of NHL defenseman the former forward could become: elite.

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(Top photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)