Bruins secure Carlo
Two-year deal for final piece of puzzle
Don Sweeney is having a pretty good week.
After finding common ground with restricted free agent Charlie McAvoy on a three-year deal worth $4.9 million annually, the Bruins general manager inserted the the final piece of the puzzle (at least for now) to this season’s team by signing his last RFA, defenseman Brandon Carlo, to a two-year deal worth $2.85 million per season Tuesday.
Sweeney contended all along he had enough money to sign all three of his RFAs (Danton Heinen signed for two years at an AAV of $2.8 million earlier in the summer), and he pulled it off by getting all three to agree to bridge deals. According to capfriendly.com, the B’s have $1,153,334 of wiggle room left under the salary cap.
That’s a combined cap hit of $10.55 million for all three players, which gets them in under the single hit of the $10.893 million for Toronto’s Mitch Marner, who also signed his second pro deal.
Not bad work by Sweeney, but the GM was kicking himself for not getting the deal done before training camp started and he took the blame for that.
“We all know the RFA market was challenging the last calendar year, but with the Jacobs family and Cam (Neely), the resources of this organization have been there. When we finalized the deal, both sides felt good, and that’s the result we want. But I honestly believe that I could have done a better job to reach that point earlier and not sacrifice any of the days,” Sweeney said. “When you start to count the days of practice time you have before games, they start to dwindle pretty quickly. You realize how short camp is. There’s really six or so practices remaining. I think, as an organization, we need to do everything we possibly can to utilize that time effectively. For an individual player, you’re taking that away from them. I take full responsibility for that.”
While Columbus’ Zach Werenski’s deal (three years, $15 million) gave Sweeney a clear template for McAvoy, Carlo’s pact — though less expensive — was trickier because the burgeoning shutdown defenseman’s game cannot be properly measured by his paltry point production.
“There’s a little more subjectivity involved. … Not that I wasn’t aware of his value to us, (his importance) to the organization and the team, (but) it has to be acknowledged, and I think it’s reflected in our approach and where this deal ended up,” said Sweeney, who believes there is room for growth in Carlo’s offensive game.
With all his teammates in camp, Carlo conceded it was more and more difficult to sit out.
“Through this time, obviously this past week, me and Charlie have been communicating quite a bit. Overall, it was a great process, and I learned a lot,” said Carlo, who’ll have two more RFA years at the end of the deal. “A lot of respect to (Sweeney and assistant GM) Evan Gold and how they handled everything. They were reassuring at times, and it helped a lot . ... I couldn’t get comfortable on the coach the last couple of days, but I’m really excited to be here.”
While his game might not translate into the cash windfall that’s expected to await McAvoy, this contract is a bridge to presumably bigger bucks for Carlo. He originally hoped for a longer-term deal, but he likes where he’s at.
“I remember talking to Sean Kuraly a year ago, and he said something that always stuck with me, ‘Always bet on yourself.’ And I believe in that 100 percent,” Carlo said.
It’s a never-ending job for Sweeney and his GM brethren. He now must turn his sights on how he can re-sign UFA-to-be Torey Krug plus 2020 RFAs Jake DeBrusk and Matt Grzelcyk, to name just a few players who’ll be looking for new contracts next summer. The biggest will be Krug’s. After Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon signed a seven-year deal worth $7.575 million annually, Krug will be able to command at least that on the open market. Spurgeon’s highest career point total was 43, last season. Krug has done better than that in each of the past four seasons.
“Everybody has their place on our hockey club, and Torey’s an important part of it,” Sweeney said. “We have some forecasting to do. We have conversations that have to take place. They will. I indicated to each player that we will have those once I have the ability to start to forecast a little more accurately, so I’ll do that accordingly.”
In all, he’ll be looking at seven UFAs and three RFAs next offseason. It’s hard to imagine him taking care of everyone on that list.
“We had players that left this organization because they had other opportunities, and you wish them well,” Sweeney said. “That may happen again. But it won’t be (because of ) under-appreciating from the Bruins for what they do for our hockey club. I’ll attack each and every one of them. When they finalize, either here or somewhere else, is to be determined.”