Is a deal near for McAvoy?
Neely says hopefully ‘in short order’
Bruins president Cam Neely was in the midst of giving a basic overview of the club’s future when he casually dropped a nice little tidbit, expressing a glimmer of optimism that an extension will soon be reached for franchise defenseman Charlie McAvoy.
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Asked again about the possible extension, which could very well set the B’s salary structure for many years to come, Neely said, “(GM) Don (Sweeney) and (assistant GM) Evan (Gold) have been working with Charlie’s camp the last couple of days, my hopes are that we’ll see something here in short order, but you never know until it’s signed on the dotted line.”
Whether it takes a few days, weeks or months to get it done, there’s little doubt that a deal for McAvoy is going to be a mammoth one. Over the past few months, Seth Jones has signed an eight-year extension with an AAV of $9.25 million, Zach Werenski inked a six-year deal worth $9.583 million annually and Darnell Nurse signed an eight-year extension with a $9.25 million AAV.
It could be reasonably argued that McAvoy has a higher ceiling than all those players.
Speaking shortly after Neely, Sweeney pleaded ignorance to Neely’s comments, and played the negotiations — as he almost always does — closer to the vest.
“From a standpoint of whether or not we’d like to have Charlie signed, I think that goes without saying,” said Sweeney. “Even Charlie commented a couple of weeks ago that he’s aware of the marketplace and what his position on the team is. Those deals take time. …There’s nothing imminent. We’re hopeful we can continue to have talks periodically with different players and the timing will present itself. We do hope to have Charlie as a part of our organization for a long period of time and hopefully that’s mutual. We think highly of him both as a player and as a person. He’s growing into a leadership role, has been included in that leadership group and hopefully that’s an indication that he’s growing into the leader and person we all hoped he’d be.”
Neely believes that McAvoy wants to be here for the long haul.
“I haven’t heard any indication that Charlie wouldn’t want to play here for his whole career, so that’s what we’re looking toward and hopefully we can get something done that gives him an opportunity to do just that,” said Neely. “We’ll see where it goes. But Charlie has embraced Boston, he went to college here. I think he likes the city, loves the sports environment, loves our fan base. Playing in front of a packed house every night is certainly something special.”
In decades past, negotiations with their top players had often been protracted taffy pulls for the B’s. But if you wanted to name a strength of Sweeney’s in his run as GM, it has been getting his own high-end players signed, from Brad Marchand and David Pastrank to just recently with the newly arrived Taylor Hall, to fair deals for both player and team.
“For us, the marketplace at times gets set during the free agency period, which could be a little over-inflated, which we’ve all seen in free agency,” said Neely. “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.”
B’s to give Bergeron space on new deal
Patrice Bergeron, in the last year of his deal, said prior to training camp that he would make a decision about his playing future after the season. The Bruins don’t plan to crowd him on that decision.
“I give Bergy a ton of credit, which happens a lot around here. He wasn’t just jumping in at an extension without really knowing if he was able to commit the time and energy he has to to be the player that he is,” said Neely. “He’s played a lot of hockey, has had some significant injuries in his career, so I think he really wants to — and rightfully so — see how he feels at the end of the year and see if he still has the passion and the drive to be the player that he’d like to be. We’re going to give him all that time and space as needed. I’d certainly love to see it continue, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Studnicka impresses Sweeney
Sweeney expects Jack Studnicka, sent down to Providence after a strong camp, to be back in Boston at some point this year.
“(Studnicka) made it awfully difficult for us to make a hard decision, to tell him he’s got to be a little more patient. He’s done a lot of things we’ve asked him to do. Now he’s implementing them in his game,” said Sweeney. “He could probably play up and down in our lineup and he knows that now. Where he was year over year is dramatically different, so he’s making the decisions harder. Will we move pieces around? Will we change the complexion of our fourth line? All discussions we’re having internally and will implement when injuries come. It’s not a matter of if, only a matter of when.”
This and that
Sweeney said the club is waiting on another MRI to determine the course of action on Curtis Lazar‘s upper-body injury.
“It’s going to be a while, more of a week-to-week basis,” said Sweeney. …
Neely on Nick Foligno: “His leadership qualities speak for themselves. This guy in my opinion was born to be a Boston Bruin, though his dad might not like to hear that.”
Foligno’s father, Mike, was a longtime Bruin antagonist, of course, mostly with the Sabres.