The Boston Bruins have taken plenty of time to negotiate the new deals for their two top restricted free agent defensemen. Yet both Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo remain unsigned.
Why is it taking so long for the Boston Bruins to sign their two restricted free agents? Many Bruins fans are already starting to get impatient about the whole saga. But in fact, it’s not a saga at all. There are plenty of plausible reasonings as to why both Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo remain unsigned still.
Firstly, the Boston Bruins have a very clear salary cap situation. With their salary cap space being at approximately $8 million, it’s easy to see that they don’t have enough of the salary cap space to lock up their defensemen. Secondly, there is still a ton of time left for both parties to find amicable terms.
Obviously, for the players, signing a contract either on August 15 or September 15 doesn’t make any big difference. We have already seen players like Torey Krug or David Pastrnak signing their respective deals shortly before October started. The Boston Bruins are in no rush to re-sign their two young blueliners.
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Last year, William Nylander signed on December 1 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. These negotiations dismissed the seeming taboo of the player not being able to survive a hold-out for that long. It was not an ideal situation or outcome for neither of the sides involved, but it demonstrated that the players’ agents are not afraid to wait as long as possible.
Looking at some deals from the past few months and years, when players as Kevin Hayes signed huge deals worth at least $7 million per year, it’s quite obvious why the players like Mikko Rantanen or Mitch Marner are just waiting and doing nothing else. All of these players, as well as the Bruins’ two defensemen love their respective teams, but after all every dollar counts.
The same applies to the teams involved. Especially for the Boston Bruins, every dollar counts twice, possibly. And that’s a reason why Charlie McAvoy and/or Brandon Carlo remain without a contract. There are no real comparisons for them, mainly for Charlie McAvoy. Ivan Provorov and Zach Werenski continue to wait, as well.
There were some rumblings earlier that the Columbus Blue Jackets were close to inking Werenski to a long-term deal worth around $7 million per season. But it hasn’t materialized yet. Why would McAvoy sign for, let’s say $6.5 million per season and then Werenski signs for $8 million per year?
Or reversely, if the Bruins sign McAvoy for $7 million and then Werenski signs for the same amount of dollars per year; Boston would like to argue that Werenski has played a year longer in the NHL and is maybe a better defenseman and McAvoy should have signed for a little bit less.
These holdouts and waiting for the comparisons are blocking the restricted free agents market. “I hate the waiting game,” said an NHL GM as per The Athletic. “It shouldn’t take that long.” There are not many top-notch young defensemen waiting for the contract, but there are some.
If the Boston Bruins wanted to just sign Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo to silence the restless fans, they can do it even right now, why not, after all. But if the patience until late September means that the Bruins might save, let’s guess even half of a million, they will take a risk and rather wait and save than pull the trigger but at any cost.
And the very same applies to the players and their agents. All the parts know there is still plenty of time ahead of them to make a deal. Every dollar counts; teams want to save as much as possible. On the other note, players want to earn as much as possible. Even though they want to be with their teams for eternity, as Charlie McAvoy has claimed, why would they take an unreasonable discount?
These are the questions surrounding the contracts negotiations between the players and the clubs as of now. Neither of the questions might be answered until September, which is pretty logical. Then, all will be waiting for the first dice to be rolled.