David Pastrnak extended for 8 years and $90 million

Thursday was a pretty good day for Boston Bruins fans. In the morning, they traded for Tyler Bertuzzi, and at night, they rolled over the Buffalo Sabres for their ninth straight win. In between both events, they extended the Czech we wanted all along, signing David Pastrnak to an 8 year, $90 million deal to keep him a Bruin through the 2030-2031 season.

Originally chosen in the first round of the 2014 draft, Pastrnak has blossomed into one of the NHL’s best players, and the new extension guarantees that he’s paid like it too. He’s making $11.25 million annually and has trade protection for all eight years.

With his new contract, Pastrnak becomes the sixth highest paid player in the league. The players making more than him? Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Auston Matthews, and Erik Karlsson. That’s pretty good company to keep.

Pastrnak has been viewed as one of the best goal scorers in the league for a few years now, as evidenced by his 48 goals in 2019-2020 and 40 goals in 2021-2022. However, Pastrnak is set to blaze by his single season high of 48 goals, with 43 already in 61 games.

Those 43 goals lead the team by a large margin, and he leads the team in a lot more than that. His 40 assists, 83 points, 29 even strength goals, 14 power play goals, and 19:46 of average ice time per game also lead the team. His seven game winning goals make him three away from matching his career high of 10, set in 2019-2020.

Pastrnak has also proven to be a scoring threat in every situation. Off the rush? He can do it. set plays? He can do it. Circling in the zone? He can do it. Power play goals? He can do it. Absolute rockets that come on the one-timer? He can do it. He’s an offensive weapon whenever he steps foot on the ice, and if he’s not scoring goals, he’s setting his teammates up to score too.

With his new contract in hand, Pastrnak will surpass Charlie McAvoy’s $9.5 million AAV as the highest paid player on the Bruins. With 14 players under contract next season, CapFriendly estimates the Bruins will have roughly $10.5 million in cap space. While it will be tough with the cap, this deal had to be done, and Pastrnak is worth every penny.