Ryan: Charlie McAvoy has found a home in Boston — and Bruins have found their next franchise star

The pain had not subsided for Charlie McAvoy as he stood in a B’s dressing room inundated with media on June 14, 2019.

Such despondency was to be expected. Just two days prior, McAvoy and the Bruins saw the Stanley Cup slip through their grasp, with the St. Louis Blues hoisting hockey’s greatest prize on the Garden ice. 

To come so far and fall just short after months of grueling playoff hockey still weighed heavily on McAvoy as he tried to find the words to sum up a season filled with so many highs — and a devastating low.  

A sustained contention window is often a fleeting opportunity for a sports club, and runs like the one the 2018-19 B’s orchestrated don’t come around often. But looking beyond the lens of just one season, McAvoy focused on the bigger picture as far as what a title could have meant — both for him and the city he’s embraced ever since he arrived on Comm. Ave in 2015.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. [Boston] is the best place on earth,” McAvoy said. “This is home for me now. I live here in the summer. I love it here. I want to be here forever. I think losing in the manner that we did, I want to just win so bad, to just be a part of it, just to join – just a city full of champions and everyone here is winners and they all won at one point and I just want to be a part of that so freaking bad.”

Twenty-eight months later, McAvoy’s mood had shifted some at Warrior. 

(Crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s on a $76 million contract will do that.)

But the sentiment that McAvoy shared when he was at his lowest that June afternoon has not waned. 

A New York native who used to spend his summers riding the surf off Long Beach and his winters cheering on the Rangers — McAvoy is now as sunken into the fabric of New England as a Dunkin coffee stain on a tattered Bruschi jersey.

And with his new eight-year contract — the largest in Bruins franchise history — secured, McAvoy isn’t going anywhere.  

“I’ve wanted to be in Boston since the moment I’ve been here,” McAvoy said. “It’s just been a dream to come to BU and then to be able to stay here and thinking back of getting that opportunity in Ottawa [in 2017] just to get a chance to come in. And that laid the foundation. It’s just been such a dream to get to this point and everything I’ve ever wanted was to be here in Boston."

McAvoy grinned from ear to ear throughout his media availability on Friday — an unsurprising development for a guy who seemingly has it all now: Security, a hefty payout … and more treats for his beloved French Bulldog, Otto. 

“I might go get my dog a handful of bones,” McAvoy said when asked about his first purchase after signing his deal. “Something like that for my guy."

Otto should be well-stocked for the foreseeable future.

Even though the five-year, $37.5 million contract that Zdeno Chara inked with Boston back in July 2006 still took up the most cap space (17.05%) of any deal that the B’s have handed out, McAvoy’s contract is the most lucrative in terms of a total payout — shattering Chara’s previous annual cap hit of $7.5 million.

And yet, while that $9.5 million annual cap hit might be striking to a Bruins fan base that has routinely reaped the benefits of Don Sweeney and his staff retaining franchise stars at far below market value — a $76 million contract is not a concession by Boston’s management.

Rather, it’s a win-win for all involved.

After seeing other D-men like Zach Werenski and Seth Jones command at least $9.5 million annually off of new deals signed this summer, McAvoy was appropriately compensated — with only Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty and Werenski earning higher pay days among NHL defensemen once McAvoy’s contract kicks in next season. 

And from the Bruins’ perspective, a $9.5 million annual cap hit is already a worthwhile investment for a 23-year-old star player that will be paid at market value in 2022 — and will start looking like a steal with each passing season. 

Now entrenched on Boston’s blue line through his age-31 season, McAvoy (so long as he remains healthy), will make good on his contract if he continues to play at the level he put forth in 2021 — in which he was a top-five finalist for the Norris Trophy and arguably the most effective D-man at 5v5 play.

But that McAvoy deal should age like fine wine for a variety of reasons.

From a fiscal standpoint, the flat cap brought on by the chill of the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually thaw in the coming seasons — with the added revenue from the NHL’s lucrative broadcast deals with ESPN and Turner Sports finally allowing teams to spend beyond that fixed $81.5 million upper limit.

Once that cap starts to soar once more, contracts handed out to stars in the $7-10 million AAV range will start to become even more palatable for teams to take on without getting into a financial crunch.

And as far as McAvoy’s own game goes, the BU product still has plenty of untapped potential — much to the chagrin of the rest of the NHL. 

Sweeney and the Bruins were wise to sign McAvoy before the 2021-22 season commenced, because giving McAvoy the keys to Boston’s top power-play unit over an 82-game slate almost certainly would have bumped the defenseman’s annual pay into double figures had he become an RFA next summer. 

If there was one component missing from McAvoy’s resume when it came to his candidacy for the top blueliner in the game — it was baseline offensive numbers, which can and should spike with more reps on the man advantage with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall.

"We know he can play five-on-five against the best players. We know he can transition through the neutral zone, O-zone blue line," Bruce Cassidy said of McAvoy. "We've talked about shooting more. I think he's trying to build that into his game. Now the power-play responsibilities is one more thing on his plate that we're going to keep working on with him ... I think Charlie always kind of rises up to whatever you put in front of him and this should be no different."

Of course, the absurd 14.32 power-play points per 60 minutes that McAvoy generated during the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs isn’t sustainable over the span of an entire season. But even keeping up half of that production could see the D-man flirt with 50+ points, putting him in rare company when factoring in his already established shutdown capabilities, transition skills and 5v5 playmaking.

The Bruins certainly had to dig deep into their pockets to pay McAvoy his due, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any objectors within the organization as far as that contract is concerned.

There’s plenty of peril involved when it comes to doling out heaps of cash to an established veteran in his prime, but a player at McAvoy’s age still has plenty of room to grow — and offers far less risk for the team that’s signing the checks. 

"I think every year in the league, you try to take a step," McAvoy said of his development. "It's a humbling league, nothing's ever easy. But I think just as far as development and growth, every year you want to take that step where the game looks like it's slowing down in a way that you know your plays, you know all your reads, you know the things that allow you to have success and I feel like that foundation is something that I've been building on. 

“And four years from now, I want to have another four years of development in that regard. To feel as though it's slowed down and I'm comfortable in every situation, which I already feel as though I am. But I know that I have so much to give and so much to go and I want to grow into the very best that I can be. There is no complacency. There's where I am now and where I feel I can get to and every year I just want to continue to take strides.”

Given those expected strides that McAvoy will take in his game in 2021-22 — coupled with the surging market for franchise defensemen — the New York native would have been well within his rights to play out this season and extract an even heftier pay day from Boston.

A potential contract stalemate, training-camp holdout or a dreaded offer-sheet scenario are all exercises that teams would like to avoid during the ramp-up to a new season — and McAvoy shared a similar mindset when it came to avoiding such drama in 2022.

Now, McAvoy can just focus on hockey, and doing whatever he can to help guide this club back to where it was a few years ago.

Within arm’s reach of the greatest trophy in sports — but with a far better result at the end of the journey. 

“I moved here full-time. I'm here in the summer,” McAvoy said of remaining in Boston long-term. “I have my routines and it's here year round, barring going to see my family and some weekends and traveling. But it's here. I live here and I love it here. I love the city, I love the people, the fans — everything. It's home for me and where I feel I belong, where I wanted to be. 

“Like I said, it's just a dream come true.”