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Boston Bruins, McAvoy Come To Terms On Massive Contract

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Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins and Charlie McAvoy’s ended the suspense and came to a deal on Friday that will keep the No. 1 defenseman in a B’s uniform for a long, long time.

It will be the richest deal in Boston Bruins history as the B’s signed McAvoy to the maximum eight-year contract for $76 million, a contract that will pay him $9.5 million per season as first reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie. Here’s the breakdown of the deal over the eight years:

While not the kind of hometown discount that players like Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak signed on for in their last contracts, the McAvoy extension is in line with other contracts handed out to No. 1 defenseman over the offseason. Cam Neely had given everybody the hint that an extension was in the works when he chatted with the Boston Bruins media a couple of days, and lo and behold it was finalized on Friday morning.

“Don [Sweeney] and [Bruins assistant GM] Evan [Gold] have been working with Charlie’s camp the last couple of days, so my hopes are that we’ll see something in short order,” said Neely during a zoom call with the Bruins media on Wednesday afternoon. “But you never know until it’s signed on the dotted line.”

Coming off a season where McAvoy was a beast in the playoffs and finished in the top-5 for Norris Trophy voting, a big raise was more of a reality for McAvoy after watching new deals for Seth Jones (8-year, $76 million), Miro Heskainen (8-year, $67.6 million) and Cale Makar (6-year, $54 million) get finalized over the summer.

Clearly the Bruins and McAvoy knew it was headed this way beforehand when they paid him a base salary of $7.3 million for the upcoming 2021-22 regular season in the final year of his current 3-year, $14.7 million bridge contract. With McAvoy about to run the point on the top Boston Bruins power play unit as well, it was urgent for the B’s to get this contract done now before the 23-year-old defenseman has the offensive production explosion everybody is expecting to see this season to go along with the dominant 5-on-5 game.

“I’m so overjoyed today. I couldn’t be happier,” said McAvoy, who finished with five goals and 30 points in 51 games last season for the Black and Gold. “There’s so many people I want to thank: The Jacobs family, Sweens and Cam, my teammates, my agents Mike and Rick Curran, the fans in Boston and then, of course, my family. It’s such an emotional day and a whirlwind. My coaches obviously here and everywhere growing up…there’s so many people that help you get to this day.”

We’ll have more on the McAvoy contract as things develop this morning, but this was a key, key piece for the Boston Bruins as they pass the baton from the old B’s core group to the New Bruins Kids on the Block in the next couple of seasons.

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