The restricted free agent market has moved slowly across the NHL all summer, and the Boston Bruins are among those being impacted.
With three notable RFAs to sign entering the offseason between Charlie McAvoy, Danton Heinen and Brandon Carlo, only Heinen has been signed, agreeing to a deal shortly before the two sides were set to hit an arbitration hearing. But with training camp just a few weeks away, both McAvoy and Carlo remain without new deals.
So, what’s going on?
McAvoy’s agent, Michael Curran, spoke to The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa about the current state of negotiations on Wednesday.
“The conversations have been going fine and they’re still continuing,” Curran said. “Time will come where we find a meeting place. I just don’t know when it’s going to be. Charlie wants to be a Bruin.”
It is hard to predict where McAvoy’s deal will land. He projects to be a franchise defenseman for many years, but some injury problems early in his career likely will keep him from making as much as he otherwise might. It’s fair to assume he’ll probably land in the neighborhood of $7 million annually (though that’s a pretty rough estimate, it could be lower or higher), but the Bruins are so tight against the cap that it might make signing Carlo a challenge without another move that would create cap space.
