Best case scenario: A bridge deal at a nicer cap hit
The best case scenario is that Charlie McAvoy forgoes some dollars to give himself a bit more flexibility should the salary cap increase. There’s no doubt that an increase may well be on the cards with the new Seattle franchise coming into the league, after all.
A bridge deal would see the Boston Bruins give McAvoy maybe three or four years, meaning he still has restricted free agent status and they’re not buying any of his (bumper payday) unrestricted free agent years.
It is good for the Bruins in that it gives them scope to assess whether injuries are going to continue to be a concern for the player. After all, last season, he only saw 54 regular season games and the year before, only 63 games. Granted, he did appear in 23 play-off games at the tail of last season, but there certainly needs to be a little more proof of his durability.
These kinds of deals can backfire; our rivals, the Montreal Canadiens found that out with the signing of PK Subban to a bridge deal a few years back. He took a $2.875 deal for two years off the back of his entry-level deal, but turned that into a $9 million eight-year deal with his performances.
Of course, we want to get him signed but there are multiple possibilities, each with potentially risky outcomes to the security of the Boston Bruins’ cap space long-term. Just getting him signed isn’t all that easy, no matter how much we may suggest it on Twitter. If it was that easy, there’s absolutely zero doubt that Charlie McAvoy would’ve already inked a deal.
We trust that the Boston Bruins management are working away on a deal and trust that it will be the right one, in the meantime though it’s all one big ‘watch this space’.