Boston Bruins contract extension with Charlie McAvoy a good deal for all and a transitional moment for organization, now focus is on Brandon Carlo.
The Boston Bruins signed defenseman Charlie McAvoy to a three-year contract extension on Sunday with an annual NHL cap hit of $4.9 million.
“We have a lot of motivation this year and obviously to just win one more game than last year,” said McAvoy on signing the contract. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but I think we are — I’m motivated and I know everyone is, and I’m just really excited to be back.”
The 21-year-old has been one of Bostons young stars and has truly developed into a top pairing defenseman. Last season in 54 games he scored seven goals and picked up 21 assists and posted a plus-14 rating while being on ice 22:10 on average per game.
McAvoy was the first Boston Bruins defensemen to lead the skaters in time on ice not named Zdeno Chara since Brad Stuart in 2005-06. Last season was a passing of the baton type moment for Boston in that regards and that carried into the postseason with McAvoy leading the team with a 24:30 time on ice per game.
In that Stanley Cup finalist run the former Boston University standout skated in 23-games posting a plus-four rating and tallied two goals and eight assists.
Overall the deal for McAvoy is sort of like highway robbery for a player that still has so much upside to show Boston.
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Bruins landed McAvoy on a favorable number, but with cap space tight focus is on Brandon Carlo
Boston with their preseason slate starting on Monday night in New Jersey wanted to get the McAvoy deal done but now they have to turn their attention to Brandon Carlo.
When the McAvoy extension was announced Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney noted that the club will get back to work on a Carlo deal but noted it takes time. For the Boston Bruins every day that Carlo misses is a day they are behind getting him where he needs to be, very much like McAvoy missing training camp.
Carlo, 22-years-old, is a veteran of three NHL seasons and last year he skated in 72 games scoring 2 goals and tallying 8 assists with a plus-22 rating and an average time on ice of 20:55. Carlo since entering the league back in 2016-17 has been one of Boston’s better defensive defenseman with a plus-32 rating and picking up 287 blocks in just 230 regular season games played.
The Bruins will have to do a little cap space limbo however as with the McAvoy move their projected cap room remaining is $3.2M.
