Boston Bruins wingers David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand have NHL’s best contracts

The Boston Bruins own the NHL’s two best contracts in wingers David Pastrnak’s and Brad Marchand’s current deals.

According to a recent article written by Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic (subscription required), the Boston Bruins currently own the NHL’s two best contracts.

These contracts belong to wingers David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.

When deciding which contracts are the best, a lot of different things factor in. First, of course, is the length and price of the deal. Second, is the productivity of the player.

For Dom’s model (subscription required), productivity is turned into surplus value. Surplus value is what Dom’s model thinks the player should be making with his current production.

Additionally, Dom also uses something called positive value probability. This is the likelihood that the player will have a positive value to his club with his current contract.

So, with all this said, let’s take a closer look at the deals of Pastrnak and Marchand.

The Boston Bruins have the second-best contract in the NHL with Brad Marchand’s current deal.

Back in September of 2016, Marchand signed an eight-year extension, with an average annual value (AAV) of $6.125 million with the B’s.

At the time, Marchand was just entering his prime at the ripe age of 27 years old and hadn’t put up a season where he scored more than 61 points. However, since signing this deal, Marchand has put up four straight seasons with at least 80 points — one where he hit the 100-point milestone.

With Marchy’s offensive production since signing this deal, there’s no doubt that the 32-year-old left wing could get much more if he were to hit the free-agent market today.

The Boston Bruins have the best contract in the NHL with David Pastrnak’s current deal.

Pastrnak signed a six-year deal back in September of 2017 with the B’s. This deal has an AAV of just $6,666,667.

When Pasta signed this deal, he was just 21 years old and had just three NHL seasons under his belt. Additionally, he had just had a breakout season in which he scored 70 points after having two seasons where he hadn’t broken 30 points.

Since signing his deal, Pasta has become one of the best wingers in the NHL, putting up three straight seasons of at least 80 points (95 points in just 70 games this season) and winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy this season for leading the league in goals with 48.

With Pastrnak just being 24 years old, he’ll definitely make much more with his next contract if this level of offensive production continues until his contract expires after the 2022-23 season.

However, the same can’t be said for Marchand as he’s already on the wrong side of 30 and still has five seasons left on his deal. By the time his deal is over, he’ll be 37 years old.

It’s hard to believe a 37-year-old could get a contract with a higher AAV than his current $6.125 million. It’s also hard to believe that Marchy can continue his current level of offensive production for much longer.

No matter what these two get with their next contracts, there’s barely an argument to say that these two contracts aren’t currently the two best bargains in the NHL.