Boston Bruins: Possible contract scenarios for Charlie McAvoy

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BOSTON – JUNE 5: With Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara (not pictured) likely out with a broken jaw, Bruins defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, rear left, is one of the candidates to join Charlie McAvoy, foreground right, in his place during a practice session at TD Garden in Boston in preparation for Game 5 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals against the St. Louis Blues on June 5, 2019. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /

Worst case scenario: A training camp hold-out

Unlike other restricted free agents around the league, Charlie McAvoy doesn’t hold any rights to seek an offer-sheet from another team. In this sense, he can’t exactly put the Boston Bruins over a barrel.

Perhaps his only leverage in negotiating a deal is that he can refuse to sign continuously and eventually sit-out. It’s not without precedent for players to do it, most notably William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs who last year sat out a whole half-year.

We’ve seen the likes of Andreas Athanasiou of the Detroit Red Wings threaten in the past to seek a deal in Russia’s KHL if his terms weren’t met. Charlie McAvoy still does have some aces in his pack, though we’d all be highly hopeful that he doesn’t choose, nor even have the need, to use any of them.

Any player that has pulled this stunt generally tarnishes their name and reputation around the league a little, though you can’t exactly question their reasoning. They want the financials they feel entitled to and sometimes you’ve got to leverage any means possible to get it.

The biggest concern for the Boston Bruins if Charlie McAvoy decides to adopt this approach should be that every missed day of training camp and possibly even every missed game is damaging to his ongoing development as a player. Not having the intensity of training camp at the start of the year may lead to him poorly performing across a significant chunk of the season.

Given that various Atlantic Division rivals have been improving their potential chances for this coming season, safe to say you want one of your top pairing defenseman pumped and ready to go on the first game night, not two weeks in.

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