Boston Bruins: How much does Jacob Trouba deal affect Charlie McAvoy?

With Jacob Trouba signing a lengthy deal with the New York Rangers; what is the impact on the Boston Bruins contract plans for Charlie McAvoy?

The Boston Bruins still have to do a little bit of house-keeping in the offseason. Both Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo are restricted free agents; Both can easily argue their case as cornerstones of the defense in the upcoming years.

Last night, the New York Rangers re-signed Jacob Trouba to a lucrative seven-year deal worth $8 million per season. How much will this deal impact a Charlie McAvoy new contract? There have been some rumblings about McAvoy possibly signing a bridge deal before cashing in on a big contract. Remember, Charlie McAvoy is not eligible to be signed to an offer sheet; he doesn’t have a ton of leeway in neogitiations.

On the other hand, there have been some talks about the possibility of the Bruins locking McAvoy to a multiple-year deal worth at least $8 million per season if not more. Jacob Trouba, alongside Ivan Provorov and Zach Werenski were the biggest restricted free agent defensemen on the market; Charlie McAvoy easily sits alongside them. Jacob Trouba was probably among the group but obviously now has his deal.

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The main difference between Charlie McAvoy and Jacob Trouba is their age. Trouba is about to head into his sixth season in the NHL, while McAvoy has just played in two NHL seasons. Trouba was drafted as the 9th overall player in the first round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, while McAvoy was selected as the 14th overall player in the first round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.

Trouba has been able to gather 179 points in 408 career games, while McAvoy has recorded 60 points in 117 games. This would indicate you that McAvoy has even bigger offensive upside; Trouba has been a moderate player at best in the offensive zone. Just last season he was able to put 50 points on the board. His previous career-best was 33 points.

Now let’s take a look at the comparison of their last two respective seasons. In the regular season, Trouba saw 2442:32 of total ice time at even strength. He collected seven goals and 36 assists for 43 points in those 137 games. He had the overall Corsi For of 50.15% and the overall xGF% of 50.64.

McAvoy, on the other hand, totalled 2207:26 in time on the ice. The 21-year-old defenseman combined for 11 goals and 35 assists for 46 points at even-strength. He had an overall CF% of 54.91 and total xGF% of 54.66. The pair had comparable counts of blocks and hits as well. They are not shy about throwing around their bodies!

Those were the stats of the past two regular seasons, now there are the playoffs. In the past two campaigns, Charlie McAvoy has featured in 35 playoff games, while collecting six points at even-strength and averaging 49% Corsi For and 46.87% of expected goals for. Trouba has participated in 23 playoff games over the past two campaigns collecting four points at even-strength and averaging Corsi For of 52.32% and 56.28 as an xGF%.

Comparing their respective NHL campaigns in the past two seasons, Charlie McAvoy seems like a little bit better player. However, statistically speaking, he hasn’t been as good as Jacob Trouba over the past two playoff campaigns. They are both expected to play big minutes for their clubs. At some point, if Trouba managed to strike $8,000,000 deal per season for seven years, McAvoy should probably get even more. But the question is when?

Charlie McAvoy’s new contract cannot be compared to the one Jacob Trouba signed for on Friday. The biggest reason is that Trouba signed two different bridge deals with the Winnipeg Jets before signing a big contract with the Rangers. In 2016, he signed for two years with the deal worth $3 million per season, last summer he signed a one-year deal worth $5 million.

Trouba is now 25-year-old. If Charlie McAvoy went a similar way to the one of Trouba, he would be 24-year-old signing a big eight or seven-year deal with the Boston Bruins. Or probably elsewhere, if he followed Trouba step-by-step.

Nevertheless, the Boston Bruins will one day pay Charlie McAvoy. It’s just maybe a little bit too early. Based on the stats, if McAvoy signs a seven-year deal right now, it should reach bigger digits than those ones on Trouba’s contract with the Rangers.

In conclusion, if the Bruins took the Jacob Trouba example exactly, they would need to settle on terms with McAvoy on a two or three-year deal worth approximately $5-6 million per season before inking a long-term deal.

Put it like this, unlike the Winnipeg Jets, we don’t think the Boston Bruins would be willing to let go of Charlie McAvoy as they did with Jacob Trouba.