Don Sweeney on RFAs McAvoy & Carlo: ‘They’re going to be Bruins for a long time’

LEOMINSTER — Just a couple more weeks stand in the way of the start of training camp over at Warrior Ice Arena, but the primary offseason objective for the Boston Bruins remains unchecked upon glancing over Don Sweeney’s annual to-do list. 

Sign Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo — both restricted free agents — to new deals. 

It’s a task that’s easier said than done, especially when factoring in Boston’s current cap situation (with around $8.1 million to work with) and the multiple ways in which these new contracts could vary in both term and average annual value — especially for McAvoy, who might be best suited for a bridge deal with more cap space and potential earnings on the horizon in another three or four years. 

And while Sweeney has noted from the final weeks of June all the way to Thursday afternoon in Leominster that there would be no set timetable when it came to negotiations with McAvoy/Carlo this summer, the lack of movement on the RFA front, league-wide is certainly startling, given that preseason action is right around the corner.

As of Friday morning, these RFAs have still yet to ink a new deal with their respective clubs:

Charlie McAvoy
Brandon Carlo
Mitch Marner
Mikko Rantanen
Brayden Point
Patrik Laine
Matthew Tkachuk
Zach Werenski
Ivan Provorov
Brock Boeser
Kyle Connor 

The game of chicken between NHL franchises and the next crop of top NHL talent doesn’t appear to be wrapping up any time soon, even for clubs with some breathing room in terms of cap space, such as the Avalanche ($15.6 million free, per CapFriendly.)

But Sweeney and the Bruins are no stranger to the waiting game when it comes to RFAs, even if this current deadlock between Boston and McAvoy/Carlo seems poised to carry on through the final weeks of the summer.

While Sweeney and the Bruins haven’t had to deal with the Threat-Level-Midnight scenario that is December 1 — AKA the deadline for an RFA to sign with the team before not being eligible to play for the remainder of the year — Boston has had a few recent negotiations carry over into the preseason, and almost later.

Before signing an extremely team-friendly six-year, $40 million contract with the Bruins, David Pastrnak seemed set to miss the start of training camp as part of ongoing negotiations, but ultimately signed on the dotted line on the day that camp opened on September 14, 2017. 

After his three-year, entry-level contract expired, Torey Krug did not re-sign with Boston until October 5, 2014 — agreeing to a one-year, $1.4 million extension just three days before the 2014-15 campaign got underway. 

So, fair to say, Sweeney isn’t exactly sweating the current situation with McAvoy and Carlo, telling BostonSportsJournal.com that the calendar creeping towards September doesn’t do much to accelerate the already steady line of communication established between all parties. 



“It’s probably all of the above,” Sweeney said when asked if the league-wide RFA holdup is due to one large domino waiting to drop or looking at more of a case-by-case basis. "I think it’s trended this way anyway, because that domino could be the one that helps you and your situation. So why not wait?  Really, there’s no pressure. The pressure points at the start of the camp and the start of the season until December. It’s up to the individual player and the team to find the right landing spot and we’ll go from that.”

“We’ve been in talks," Sweeney added about discussions with both McAvoy and Carlo. "There’s been nothing other than constant communication. We’re trying to find the right spot. We’ll get there — we’ll get there at some point."

Sweeney certainly has a point when it comes to not being the team responsible for letting that first domino drop and setting the market for everyone else, especially if it's deal with a bloated cap hit even on a "bridge deal" (here's looking at you, Marner).

It can be a gamble for Sweeney to wait and see what other teams/players settle on, however, as a jolt to the market could put an already cap-strapped B's club into an even greater bind.

If we were to look at @EvolvingWild’s projected contracts for next season, then Carlo (six years, $4.3 million annually) and McAvoy’s new deals (six years, $7.25 million annual) would put Boston a little over $3 million above the cap limit. Boston can exceed the salary cap by 10 percent during the summer, but once training camp ends, teams in the cap cushion NEED to clear that space to get back under the limit. 

As such, the case remains the same when it comes to the Bruins this summer — cap space needs to be shed, whether it be via trade, LTIR or another maneuver.

That's a given at this point. As is the fact that regardless of whatever cap headaches the B's are dealing with currently, they won't prevent Boston from retaining two blue-line cornerstones in McAvoy and Carlo for the foreseeable future.

"I will, emphatically, tell you that our RFAs guys, be it Brandon Carlo or Charlie McAvoy, they are going to be Bruins for a long time," Sweeney said in a Q&A session at the Bruins Fan Fest event at Doyle Field. "As you know, our plan has been to grow, develop and incorporate our younger players into a very special group of core players. I think you guys all know who they are and hopefully grow the next special group of core players.

"We believe both Charlie and Brandon will be part of that group. We’ve got some work to do, I’m not going to tell you that I don’t have a lot to do in that regard to close gaps. But at some point in time, we’ve got to find a landing spot and they’re going to be with the Boston Bruins for a long time.”