Boston Bruins: Why is Brandon Carlo still waiting for a contract?

Everyone has been questioning why Charlie McAvoy hasn’t signed a new deal with the Boston Bruins, but perhaps the bigger question is what is Brandon Carlo waiting for?

The obvious answer is that Brandon Carlo is simply waiting for Charlie McAvoy to ink a deal so that he and his agent know what dollars are available to the Boston Bruins.

Perhaps that is the case, but with Zach Werenski signing a new deal in Columbus with a very clever structure, maybe Brandon Carlo still has options even if McAvoy takes a substantial amount of the available cap space.

Looking at the Werenski deal, you can make an argument that McAvoy, regardless of what his agent thinks may be worth just an averaged $5 million across a short-term deal. That leaves $3.5 million going spare for Brandon Carlo.

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What is he waiting for exactly?

The Boston Bruins aren’t a team known for over-paying; the most recent over-pay was for David Backes, though he had, up until that point, a pedigree as quite a solid performer and should’ve been able to provide value at least to the value of three-quarters of his deal. Free agency just pumped the numbers a little too much.

Difference here is that restricted free agency hasn’t pumped the numbers, or at least doesn’t seem to have, as much as these young players were anticipating. Werenski is the prime example; you could’ve made bets on him expected an Aaron Ekblad type deal of $7.5 million across a full seven-year term, but instead he’s hedging his bets.

As training camp approaches, I expect a few more players to fold, Brandon Carlo included.

If his camp seek let’s say a three-year deal at $3.5 million per season from the Boston Bruins; it’s holds fair value on both sides. Now the smart thing his camp could do is make that a $3 million deal the first two years, ensuring his deal (and thus qualifying offer) is worth $4 million in the final year.

That’d be a contract that doesn’t look to bad to any of the parties involved; for Brandon Carlo – he get’s paid but also gets time to prove himself worthy of more than $4 million should he choose arbitration at the time his qualifying offer is holds that value.

It’s all well and good for us to speculate the numbers; realistically, I don’t expect Carlo to sign until McAvoy does. Or maybe, just maybe, the Boston Bruins can pull a fast one and ink both guys at the same time.

There’s no question that we want Brandon Carlo back patrolling the blue line for the Boston Bruins next season; arguably it’s on the player to force his team to get it done.

Training camp is fast approaching and we don’t want player contracts casting a shadow on the start of a new season.