Bruins sign Brandon Carlo to 2-year contract extension with AAV of $2.85 million

Less than two days after bringing their top restricted free agent back in the fold in Charlie McAvoy, the Bruins took care of their last remaining RFA by inking Brandon Carlo to a two-year contract extension.

And man, is it a bargain. Again. 



Carlo’s contract, while another “bridge deal” based on term, will also count just $2.85 million against the cap for each of the next two seasons. 

As such, a Bruins club that seemed poised to make some cap-clearing maneuvers this summer — whether it be packaging prospects and picks in a potential David Backes deal or even dealing an impact player like Torey Krug to free up some capital — is now sitting at $1.15 million in available space before the regular season gets underway.

Add in the fact that both John Moore and Kevan Miller could be placed on LTIR to start the season — leading to temporary cap relief of $5.25 million if Boston went over the cap ceiling — and Boston should have plenty of wiggle room to open the 2019-20 season. 

Carlo is coming off of the best season of his young career, with the 22-year-old blueliner averaging 20:55 of ice time while primarily skating alongside Torey Krug on Boston’s second D pairing. 

Already a stout presence on the penalty kill and around the D zone as a shutdown option for Bruce Cassidy to utilize, Carlo also saw his value rise after finally getting a chance to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs — with the skater on the shelf due to injuries during Boston’s previous two playoff treks.

During Boston’s run to the Stanley Cup Final, the case could be made that Krug-Carlo was the Bruins’ most reliable duo on the blue line, with Boston holding a 12-9 edge in 5v5 goals and controlling 53% of the shot share during the 303:45 of TOI in which both skaters were deployed during the postseason.

Following the trend of other RFAs that have signed contracts over the last two weeks, Boston will still have team control over Carlo once he enters free agency again at the end of the 2020-21 season, although Carlo would have a few more options as an arbitration-eligible player. Still, by the time Carlo is due for another bump in pay, Boston once again could have much more cap flexibility with contracts like David Backes ($6 million) and David Krejci’s ($7.25 million) coming off the books. 

Add in the fact that McAvoy and Carlo’s new deals now give the Bruins around $26.2 million in cap space next offseason with players like Torey Krug, Charlie Coyle, Matt Grzelcyk (RFA), Jake DeBrusk (RFA), Chris Wagner, Joakim Nordstrom and Jaroslav Halak set to enter free agency, and once again, Don Sweeney seems to have hit a home run when it comes to maximizing Boston’s current window while remaining outside of cap hell going forward. 

More coverage to come...