BOSTON — The Boston Bruins managed to get Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Danton Heinen signed this offseason, but they’ll have more big decisions to make soon.
Following this season, both Torey Krug and Charlie Coyle will be unrestricted free agents, while Jake DeBrusk will be a restricted free agent. The first two, Krug in particular, likely will command pretty hefty deals, so it probably won’t be a breeze to get those contracts sorted out. But between general manager Don Sweeney, Krug and Coyle, there is a desire to make things work.
During media day Tuesday in Brighton, Sweeney was mum on the status of negotiations beyond saying that discussions have taken place.
“They’re all ongoing. As I’ve been previously saying that you will not hear through us where those deals are at, and that’s really out of respect for every deal that you negotiate. I understand it makes your guys’ job that much harder, and you do a hell of a job predicting where those are all supposed to go,” Sweeney said. “Those influences are not brought in to our discussions. We have discussions that need to take place, and the other side will hopefully respect that as well. We are in discussions with the players we’ve discussed, because they are a part of our group right now and a very important part of our group. And if things work out and we find that common ground, they probably will be for a long time.”
Krug has said he’d be willing to consider taking a bit less to stay in Boston. But with the regular season now approaching, don’t expect much more of that candor.
“It does (provide some relief that talks have started),” Krug said Tuesday. “It’s exciting, now that we’re in the regular season I don’t want to talk too much about it just out of respect for my teammates and the process and everything like that. But it’s obviously exciting anytime you’re talking about where you can be in the future, (the present) is important, but it’s just an exciting time. So hopefully things can work out.”
Coyle is in a unique spot since he’s from the area and has been clear he always dreamed of playing for the Bruins. But now that he’s here, he’s trying to just keep his mind in the present.
“To me I’m not really worried about it at all,” Coyle said. “It’s nice to have that communication right now, and I’ll talk with my agents, they’ll talk with Don and just keep that open line of communication, which is good. But it’s not something that (I’m thinking) ‘we’ve got to get this done, we’ve got to get this done,’ I’m really focused on this year, I’m under contract this year, so I feel like I can just play and do what I need to do to help this team win and be the best player I can. That stuff will work itself out if I keep focusing on the task at hand I think, so I’m not too worried about that. That’ll play out, and like I said we’ve got an open line of communication, that’s good going forward.”
While it’s not certain if negotiations will extend into the regular season, it certainly will be something to monitor once next summer starts to draw near.
