Boston Bruins: Charlie McAvoy finally has a comparable contract to negotiate against

The benchmark may have just been set for Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, after Zach Werenski agreed a 3-year, $15 million contract.

It looks incredibly positive for the Boston Bruins as they aim to ensure Charlie McAvoy is signed prior to training camp starting; the logical thinking being that McAvoy’s contract comes before Brandon Carlo signing one. The key reason being that McAvoy’s asking price essentially sets the bar for how much can be offered to Carlo.

The interesting element of the Zach Werenski deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets is the way the annual salary has been structured. Rather than the deal being a straightforward $5 million each year for the next three years, it’s actually $4 million a year for the first two years and $7 million in the final year.

Key to this deal are two facts; that Werenski will need a qualifying offer of $7 million and that arbitration will potentially net him upwards of $8 million should that be a bridge that needs to be crossed. In the short-term, he offers his team a decent level of cap flexibility by taking a smaller hit in the next two seasons.

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Would Charlie McAvoy be willing to pursue a similar salary structure with the Boston Bruins; allowing them to re-sign himself and Brandon Carlo for now whilst pushing a true payday slightly further down the line, when he has hopefully proven himself not to be such an injury worry and also firmly established himself as the number-one defenseman.

We compared Zach Werenski and Charlie McAvoy earlier in the summer and plain facts are that they’re quite similar players in terms of their performances on their entry-level deals; the key difference being that McAvoy has tasted the Stanley Cup Final whereas Werenski hasn’t.

Obviously, there is still Ivan Provorov yet to ink a new deal with the Philadelphia Flyers and Charlie McAvoy’s agent is likely hoping that is another deal that helps his client, but the clock is truly ticking to ensure that he is as camp when the Boston Bruins shortly get it rolling.

To my thinking, the best deal McAvoy could sign is something that closely matches the one signed by Werenski. Give himself a few years to continue proving himself, give the Boston Bruins medical team a bit longer to assess whether he can consistently stay fit and healthy and ultimately guarantee himself a strong qualifying offer purely based on the structure of the deal.

Obviously, this may or may not end up being the outcome, but hopefully the whole thing can be put to bed shortly. Charlie McAvoy has previously stated that he wants to remain with the Boston Bruins, now is the time to truly put his money where his mouth is, proverbially speaking.

With any luck, Zach Werenski and his agent have done the Boston Bruins a favour here.