The Boston Bruins are set to go into the season with six defensemen. But it’s the two that are missing that is the cause for concern.
Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy remain unsigned as the NHL offseason drags on, and it is rightfully becoming a cause for concern for Bruins fans. The Bruins have just eight million in cap space in order to sign the two young blueliners, and as the days tick by, a holdout by either or both players continue to look more and more likely.
There’s no question that these two stalwarts deserve to be paid. McAvoy and Carlo both proved their worth during last year’s Stanley Cup Final run. Both averaged well over 20 minutes of ice time a night, more than any other Bruins defenseman outside of the occasional Torey Krug-filled stat sheet when the Bruins would have a lot of power plays.
Eight million is not enough money to sign the two; it’s just a fact. The Bruins are going to need to trade an albatross contract like David Backes’ or David Krejci’s in order to make the money work, and it might sacrifice the future of the team because if the contracts for both McAvoy and Carlo are too big, guys like Jake DeBrusk and Krug might not be able to be re-signed.
The Bruins, for some inexplicable reason, don’t seem to want to admit fault with the terrible David Backes deal. They might be shopping him now, but they will almost certainly have to give up prospects in order to entice a team with cap space to take on the massive overpay. They need to pull the trigger on that deal sooner rather than later, or they will regret it in the long run.
The other major stumbling block could be the David Krejci contract. Krejci has been a Bruins fan favorite, but if he is the obstacle between signing the two young guns, fans and management shouldn’t be hesitant to cut him loose. He was productive during his Bruins career, but he is on the proverbial “back nine,” and the Bruins shouldn’t mortgage their future top pairing for one year of an aging second-line center.
Bottom line, the time is running out for Cam Neely, Don Sweeney, and co. The blue line has a gaping hole on it that the likes of Connor Clifton or the oft-injured Kevan Miller cannot hope to fix. Carlo and McAvoy have said that they want to remain in Boston. It’s time for the B’s to back the Brinks truck up for the two of them.
