Tag Archives: contract extension

What Will the Bruins Do with McAvoy and Carlo

On Tuesday night the Boston Bruins announced they signed restricted free agent Danton Heinen to a two-year deal with a $2.8 million cap hit. The NHL salary cap for the 2019-2020 season is $81.5 million, and the Bruins have about $8 million available. Now that Heinen is signed, what will be done with Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo? McAvoy played 54 regular season games with 7 goals and 21 assists, totaling 28 points. In the post season he played 23 games with 2 goals and 6 assists for 8 points. Carlo played 72 regular season games, tallying 2 goals and 8 assists for 10 points. In the postseason he played 24 games with 2 goals and 2 assists for 4 points total.

Photo by Winslow Townson

Navigating the Cap

Last season Brandon Carlo was not as productive in points as Charlie McAvoy, but they’re both effective on the ice and bring speed and physicality to the team. Both are also now restricted free agents who want (and deserve) bigger contracts. With so little cap space, however, this will be a difficult task. The Bruins have a few options to explore, the most likely will be to trade players who are older and less productive. Defenseman John Moore, 28, is a likely candidate with a cap hit of $2.75. After 61 games played in the regular season, Moore got only 4 goals and 9 assists for 13 points. He played 10 postseason games and went pointless. Likewise, injury-prone defenseman Kevan Miller, 31, has a cap hit of $2.5 million and missed much of last season and the entirety of the postseason.

Trading Backes

David Backes is the subject of much discussion in this regard. He’s 35 with an annual cap hit of $6 million. He’s not as productive as he once was, and was a healthy scratch during stretches both in the regular and postseason. Trading Backes would free up a lot of space to sign McAvoy and Carlo, but can the Bruins find a team willing to take on those cap hits? There are teams out there with a large enough gap. Teams like Colorado, Winnipeg, and Ottawa all have over $20 million available, and could be good trade targets.

Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images

Bridge Contracts

Another option would be bridge contracts. While McAvoy and Carlo likely want larger, long-term contracts, they could be signed to short term contracts with the understanding that they’ll be revisited in a couple of years, once contracts expire for players such as Backes, David Krejci, and Tuukka Rask.

McAvoy is the Priority

One more potential solution, though not necessarily the most desirable, would be to only sign one of the two. If that’s the case, it has to be Charlie McAvoy. His production, ice time, and style of play makes him an obvious franchise player. You can count on the fact that the Bruins will sign McAvoy no matter what.

Photo by Brian Babineau
McAvoy

Charlie McAvoy: What’s Next?

The 2018-2019 NHL season is rapidly coming to a close. The Boston Bruins have clinched the Eastern Conference and are four wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. This would be their first time in eight years and the seventh time in franchise history. The Cup is close to coming back to Boston. No matter what happens, the off-season is looming in the near-future, and with it contract negotiations.

Photo by Joshua Kloke

Contract Extension

One of the biggest off-season moves for the Bruins is extending defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who becomes a restricted free agent at the end of this year. McAvoy has been a reliable staple on the blue line lately, partnered with Zdeno Chara. He recently turned down a long-term offer by the Bruins, suspected to be due to recent offers to similar players such as defenseman Esa Lindell. Lindell was extended by the Dallas Stars on a 6 year, $34.8 million contract, giving him $5.8 million a year. He scored 11 goals this season and put up 32 points. Making that more enticing is his youth. Lindell is only 25. McAvoy wants a similar contract and why not? The kid’s young with plenty of potential that he’s sure to live up to.

Value

Charlie McAvoy was an integral part of the USA team in the 2017 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. He received the Player of the Game honor in their gold-medal game win. McAvoy’s also got youth on his side, at 21 years-old, and his stats are impressive this season. He’s missed 28 games due to a concussion, a lower-body injury, and a one-game suspension. Despite that, he has 8 goals and 35 points thus far. McAvoy has the ability to become a superstar on an already star-studded Bruins roster.

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Salary Cap Era

Unfortunately, we live in the salary cap era. Dallas can afford to pay Lindell $34.8 million over 6 years because they have the cap space. The Bruins aren’t as fortunate. GM Don Sweeney is still filling the hole that was dug by former GM Peter Chiarelli. McAvoy would be in the upper-echelon pay scale of Bruins players with a contract similar to Lindell’s. He’s a great defenseman who looks to only get better, but is he worth paying as much or more than someone like David Pastrnak? More to the point, is he worth paying so much against the cap that the Bruins can’t afford to keep some of their other top-tier players for much longer? The Chicago Blackhawks did that a few seasons ago with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and it hurt the team.

What Can Be Done

One potential solution is extending the time on the contract. An amount such as $30 million over four years is unrealistic, but over six or seven years could be manageable. It comes down to McAvoy and what he’s willing to accept versus what he feels he’s worth. Would he be willing to take a pay cut to stay in Boston? Furthermore, what happens if the Bruins win the Stanley Cup? The way McAvoy plays combined with his ice time would be factors in that win, giving him a much larger bargaining chip. However, the salary cap is ruthless and inflexible. Only time will tell but this will certainly be an interesting and potentially exciting off-season.