“Got to follow in the footsteps of those guys. If you want to try to make every dollar you can, unfortunately that’s not going to be with this group.” Brad Marchand – May, 2019.
“I don’t play hockey for money man” David Pastrnak – May, 2019.
Marchand’s comments weren’t a shot at the Boston Bruins or Owner Jeremy Jacobs. They were intended to point out the fact that Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Tuukka Rask took less money so that the Bruins could be more competitive and he was just following in their footsteps.
It’s been reported that Bergeron took less money when he signed his deal back in 2013 where, on the open market he could have received the same $9 million per year deals that were given to Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. That’s some hometown discount!
Rask signed his 8-year, $7 million per season deal a year after Carey Price signed his 6-year, $6.5 million deal. Rask signed for basically the same percentage of the cap but gave up term. And we all know what happened, right? Price signed an 8-year $10.5 million per year deal and while the Canadiens were paying him that money for the last 3 seasons, Rask was earning his $7 million. Furthermore, if and when Rask returns from his surgery, he’ll earn even less than $7 million per.
To a lesser extent, those team friendly deals seemed to have trickled down to Brandon Carlo as well. Carlo signed a 6-year contract back in July that carries an AAV of $4.1 million. The St Louis Blues extended Colton Parayko with an 8-year deal that will pay him $6.5 million per season beginning in 2022-2023 this week. Parayko may not be the best comparable to Carlo, but is there a $2.4 million per season difference? I don’t think so. It just goes to show that in an offseason where defensemen were getting massively overpaid, Carlo took a team friendly deal.
Has any of that rubbed off on Charlie McAvoy? Time will answer that question. In an offseason where defensemen signed for (per season) $9 million (Dougie Hamilton), $9.25 million (Darnell Nurse), $9.58 million (Zach Werenski), $9.5 million (Seth Jones), is it inconceivable to suggest McAvoy’s deal begins with a 9 or quite possibly a 10?
I took to Twitter and the lowest amount suggested by fans was $7.5 million with one fan suggesting $11 million. All we know for sure is it starts at $7.3 million (his qualifying offer) and goes up from there.
One thing I’ve been lucky at is nailing down what Bruins contracts will come in at. I recall being laughed off of social media when I suggested Pastrnak was going to come in at $6.6 million.
I’ll take that risk again – $8.5 million to $8.7 million.
Dom - Hockey 