Ty Anderson covers all things Boston Bruins for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Marina Molnar follows the Bruins for Barstool Sports. Earlier this week, Anderson was the first guess on Molnar’s podcast, Marina’s Morning Skate. They had an interesting conversation about the Bruins’ off-season goals.
The show started with both recapping how they still feel frustrated and disappointed with the Bruins Game 7 loss. Then Molnar transitioned to the contract negotiations of Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy.
Anderson and Molnar both believe the Bruins and McAvoy should agree to a bridge deal. Molnar mentioned that since McAvoy has had injury problems in his young career, the Bruins do not want to give him a long term extension just yet.
“And if I were his camp, I would say, ‘do a bridge deal dude,’” Anderson said. “Because look at the Bruins cap structure, right. In the next two years, you have a lot of money opening up there between Backes, Krejci and Rask.” Anderson added that McAvoy could sign a 2-3 year deal at $5.5-6.5 Million a year. McAvoy could see a substantial salary increase if he reaches his potential.
Molnar also brought up how many Bruins, Bergeron, Marchand, and Pastrnak to name a few, took more team friendly contracts. “Do you really want to be that guy walking into that locker room, at 22, being the highest paid?” Molnar asked. “I wouldn’t.”
Anderson added the Bruins have been great at finding players to take less money to build a competitive team. “They’ve gotten guys to take less,” Anderson said. “And McAvoy is not going to be the exception there.”
The conversation then shifted to the other young, talented defenseman Brandon Carlo. Anderson asked how the Bruins would value a player like Carlo. “He’s not an offensive guy, he generates almost nothing offensively,” Anderson said. “But he’s a great skater. He’s a great shutdown guy. He’s been huge on their PK over the last three seasons. And I thought he was great in the playoffs for them too.” Anderson said he thinks he is worth just under $4 Million due to his lack of offensive skill.
Molnar was curious which player would sign first, McAvoy or Carlo. “Him and McAvoy are key cogs,” Molnar added. “They’re so young, they’re going to be key cogs for a long time.” Anderson and Molnar both think Carlo should make just less than $4 Million. However, Anderson and Molnar agreed he played well during his first postseason last spring.
Molnar pointed out that the Bruins have approximately $8.1 Million remaining in salary cap space. In order to sign both players, the Bruins need to shed some salary.
“I think the Backes contract is the one you have to move,” Anderson said. Anderson would move a first round pick with Backes to help get this core another banner. “I don’t want to trade a good player, like Torey Krug or David Krejci, to keep a bad player in David Backes.”
Molnar brought up that when McAvoy and Carlo sign, the Bruins will have nine defensemen. “I think a Johnny Moore or a Kevan Miller is probably more likely to be sent out with their low salaries.”
Anderson and Molnar also got into potential line combinations and bounced around with Twitter questions. This was an insightful look into the Bruins off-season and plans heading into training camp. If you want to learn about Ty Anderon’s journey to 98.5, I wrote a profile on him last spring.
This will be a two part article where I will dive into what this podcast might mean regarding 98.5 and Barstool’s relationship currently and going forward.
Photo courtesy of Ty Anderson’s twitter account.
Story by Chad Jones
Follow Chad on Twitter @shutupchadjones