We celebrate Black Friday pretty much like a holiday now. It’s a day for us to take advantage of low prices on our favorite gadgets and gifts.
Where can Boston Bruins fans find the best Black Friday deals? This year, we don’t have to look in the pro shop. Believe it or not, we’ll see the best deals on the ice against the New York Rangers.
David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand are the best Black Friday deals any fan, and the Bruins organization for that matter, can want.
Pastrnak currently is in the middle of the best stretch of his career. He leads the entire NHL with 23 goals in only 25 games, and as such some people compare him to Mario Lemieux.
No matter what opposing teams do, they simply cannot stop Pastrnak right now. Earlier this week, he went into Montreal and left with a hat trick. The last time a Bruin had a hat trick in Montreal was in 1987!
Like Pastrnak, Marchand is on an incredible run right now. Fresh off his first 100-point season, Marchand picked up right where he left off this year.
He has 43 points in 25 games, good enough for third in the NHL. Marchand dominates play at even strength and on special teams, and he looks like the best winger in hockey.
With all that said, we have to look beyond the stats to see why Pastrnak and Marchand are such great deals for Boston. Let’s consider their contracts.
Pastrnak and Marchand contracts are two of the best in hockey
Pastrnak signed a six-year extension in 2017 with the Bruins worth $40 million total. That gives him a yearly cap hit of $6.67 million, which is an insane value for Boston. The Bruins have the league’s top goal scorer, at age 23, signed for three more years at a team-friendly cap hit.
Nowadays, restricted free agents often sign mega-deals. Mitch Marner got $10.89 million per year from Toronto, and the Leafs are in a tough spot as a result. Even Kyle Connor, who many thought was a bargain at $7.14 million per year, followed that up with only nine goals so far this year.
Marchand is in the same boat as Pastrnak. Rather than hit free agency, Marchand signed an eight-year contract worth $6.25 million per year. This looked like a great deal for Boston at the time, and now it looks even better.
Since he signed that deal, Marchand recorded 85 and 100 points in the two next seasons. This year, he’s on pace to eclipse both of those by a healthy margin.
Nikita Kucherov is one of the few wings who matched Marchand’s production these two years, and his cap hit is $9.5 million per year. Connor McDavid is the only player with a points/60 better than Marchand, and his $12.5 million cap hit is almost double Marchand’s
This doesn’t mean that Marchand is better than McDavid. We all love Marchand, but McDavid is out of this world in terms of talent.
And even with Pastrnak, we don’t mean to tell you he’s way better than the likes of Marner or even Kucherov.
What we do say, and what nobody can really debate right now, is that Pastrnak and Marchand are better deals than those other players. And with a salary cap, that really matters.