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Bruins sign Charlie McAvoy to eight-year extension |
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This past summer, the market for young defensemen blossomed. When each new contract was announced, wowing more than the previous, Charlie McAvoy’s big and bright smile only grew.
He knew it and the Bruins knew it: McAvoy is about to get paid and paid handsomely.
On Wednesday team president Cam Neely had hoped a deal would be completed in the coming days.
"We're going to hopefully get Charlie McAvoy done here shortly. [general manager] Don [Sweeney] and [assistant GM] Evan [Gold] have been working with Charlie's camp the last couple of days," said Neely. "So, my hopes are we'll see something here in short order, but you never know until it's signed on the dotted line."
On Friday, Neely got his wish as the team announced the extension of McAvoy to an eight-year, $76 million contract.
An AAV of $9.5 million.
From Zach Werenski’s six-year $57.5 million contract to Miro Heiskanen’s eight-year $67.6 million contract, and other’s in between, it’s a good time to be a National Hockey League defenseman around the age of 25.
Seth Jones, Darnell Nurse, Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, and a few others also inked massive contracts this off-season, changing the landscape of what contracts for these young, number one defensemen look like.
"Well for us, the marketplace at times gets set during the free-agent period, which could be a little overinflated, as we've all seen in free agency,” Neely said.
“That's just the nature of the business, but I think in the past we've been very fair and honest with our players when we negotiate with them. It's not about trying to win anything; it's about trying to land at the right spot where both sides are very happy and that's what we hope to do with Charlie."
It was wise for the Bruins to get a deal done with McAvoy before the puck drops Saturday. If negotiations had carried over into say the first month or two or the season, the price on McAvoy could have increased, especially given his new role as the power play quarterback on the top unit.
In 11 playoff games last season, most of which we’re spent running the top unit, McAvoy averaged 14.32 points per 60 minutes on the power play. Most among playoff defensemen with at least five minutes of power play time on ice.
Expect similar or even better numbers across a full season.
McAvoy enters the season on the final year of a three-year $14.7 million bridge deal signed in September of 2019.
On Wednesday, Sweeney took a more conservative approach when discussing the McAvoy extension by saying “nothing is imminent.” Apparently, nothing being imminent quickly changed.
Undoubtedly the Bruins top dog on the blueline, he’s been the team’s anchor back there for several seasons now and will continue to do so for years to come.
His ability to quickly cut off an incoming rush with his high hockey IQ is equal to his ability to grab the puck and quickly send the puck up ice and in transition. His all-around game continues to improve year-in and year-out.
"We value him, both as a player and as a person,” said Sweeney. “He's growing into a leadership role. He's been included in that leadership group and hopefully that's an indication that Charlie's growing into the person, both as a leader and as a player, that we hoped he would be."
As we all expected, McAvoy becomes another young, top defenseman to earn himself one heck of a payday.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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