Bruins lock up key cog on blue line with 4-year contract for Matt Grzelcyk

The left side of the Bruins' blue line might still have a few vacancies that need to be filled, but Boston managed to lock up at least one key contributor for the foreseeable future on its D corps — as the club announced Saturday evening that it signed Matt Grzelcyk to a four-year contract worth an annual cap hit of $3,687,500.

Grzelcyk, 26, appeared in 68 games with the Bruins in 2019-20, tallying four goals and 17 assists for 21 points with a plus-15 rating. The Charlestown native has appeared in 197 career NHL games with the Bruins over the last three seasons, primarily serving in a third-pairing role next to the likes of Kevan Miller, Connor Clifton and Jeremy Lauzon. A restricted free agent entering the 2020 offseason, Grzelcyk elected for a salary arbitration hearing in order to hash out the value of his new contract with Boston — but both player and team ultimately agreed to terms on a new contract before the arbitration hearing – set for Oct. 20 — got underway.

"It took a while to find a landing spot," Don Sweeney said of working out a new contract with Grzelcyk. "There are a lot of variables in play. We have RFA guys signing at UFA marketplace that people are trying to get a read on, and then the projection piece moving forward. The league has to get back on track with the schedule. In a flat cap environment for the next couple years, and sort of projecting out where all the players fit. And where they feel comfortable. Ultimately, it’s the players decision. As far as how far apart we were, we had a gap. We had to breach some things.

"We had to work at it. And I’m thankful to (agent) Peter Fish, to and Matt for working through it. And all the work that Evan Gold did in a pre-brief situation as well as working with the arbiter, the lawyers.  We understood firmly where the [arbitration] case may land, but then it’s up to an arbitrator to make that decision, so you never know exactly where that is going to be finalized. And we preferred to pursue it at a longer-term deal, we were fortunate enough to get that done."

With Grzelcyk back in the fold, the Bruins have roughly $8 million available in cap space for the rest of their offseason to-do list, headlined by a pending contract for another RFA in Jake DeBrusk.

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Given how barren Boston's defensive corps currently is — especially on the left side with Torey Krug in St. Louis and Zdeno Chara still unsigned — it makes plenty of sense for the Bruins to ink Grzelcyk to a deal beyond any kind of bridge contract that would have been agreed upon through an arbitrator. All things considered, Grzelcyk's contract should be considered pretty fair value — especially given what should be a heavy bump in minutes for the BU product next season, both during 5v5 play and on the power play.

While Sweeney didn't commit to carving out a defined role for Grzelcyk in 2021, it would appear as though he's the odds-on favorite to rise up the depth charts on Boston's D corps, even if a player like Chara was eventually brought back into the fold.

While a potential top pairing of Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy may not be the most physically imposing blue-line duo, the two fleet-footed skaters have established a pretty impressive track record together when it comes to tilting the ice in Boston's favor when they're out together on a shift.

In the 505 minutes of even-strength ice time that the Grzelcyk-McAvoy pair has been out on the ice together over the last three seasons, Boston holds the edge in:

Shot attempts: 551-390 (58.55% shot share)
Shots on goal: 309-222 (58.19% share)
Scoring chances: 280-184 (60.34% share)
High-danger scoring chances: 117-74 (61.26% share)
Goals scored: 32-20 (61.54% share)

On the man advantage, Grzelcyk also stands as the logical successor to Krug. Even if Grzelcyk may not be as dynamic as the current Blues PP QB (opting to spend more time walking the blue line than operating at the half wall), the Boston native has fared very well when handed the keys to the power play.

Last season, Boston generated a goals scored per 60 minutes rate of 11.72 when Krug was operating on the power play at the same time as David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand (over a span of 179:07 of ice time). Granted, Grzelcyk had a smaller sample size on the man advantage next to No. 37, 63 and 88 — but Boston managed to post a goals scored per 60 minutes rate of 12.07 in the 24:51 of ice time that Grzelcyk spent with the rest of the B's big guns on the power play.

Yes, perhaps his track record may not be as established as another puck-mover like Krug, but Grzelcyk's poise, playmaking ability and transition play make him an easy candidate for a larger role on the 2021 Bruins. Yes, Boston still has a couple more moves to make to fill out its roster, but a player like Grzelcyk is exactly the type of player that can (and should) thrive in today's NHL.

"I think he’s proven he can play in really any different position on the left side," Sweeney said. "He’s had a consistent partner in Kevan Miller over a period of time, he’s slid in and played with Brandon (Carlo), certainly with Charlie (McAvoy) in offensive situations. It might just depend on the matchup the coaches feel comfortable with moving forward. I think his ice time has been fairly consistent, even-strength over the last three years. And we’ll continue to look at advantageous positions that we can put Matt into to help our transition game, get him involved in the offense.

"And I think the power play component is something we believe he can continue to grow in that area. He’s playing with some pretty talented players, he’ll get that opportunity. They’ve proven that they can carry the weight of the power play as a group and I think he’ll be able to compliment that. And there will be other players that will look for that opportunity as well. so again, it’s always players driven. But we feel comfortable in the way our right side is built now and the depth and the different personalities that we have there that Matt can play with anyone."