BRIGHTON – Perhaps nobody’s individual season mirrored the Bruins' regular season trainwreck more than defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who had never known anything but the Stanley Cup playoffs during his NHL time in Boston.
Some forget the 27-year-old McAvoy actually made his NHL debut in the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs after finishing things up in his college career at Boston University and has gone on to play close to 100 postseason games while the Bruins qualified every season. That all changed this season, of course, as McAvoy was limited to 50 games with injuries and didn’t play a single game after suffering a shoulder injury, and subsequent infection, during the 4 Nations Faceoff tournament back in February.
There were a lot of emotions running through the Bruins defenseman after a lot of idle time left pondering about how things all played out for him.
“Not a great year, really, by any stretch. There were certainly some pockets of some good memories. But overall, really, a year to forget with an unfortunate ending on my side,” said McAvoy, who didn’t play again after suffering a Grade 5 AC joint injury and a pretty serious infection. “There really isn't much. Honestly, it's all just motivation, really. To not feel like this again. [I’ve] never been here and I don't want to be here again, so that's kind of where we're at. The struggles I had this year they're well-known, and it was unfortunate, but I'm excited to put a close on this chapter. Be done with it, honestly, to just get it behind me and then move on from here.
“I don't even feel like I played hockey this year, which is so unfortunate, because I think I played more games than I might have even thought, but I haven't played since February. At times, it's felt like that was last season, or something separate in my head because it's felt like it's been so long. Skating as much as I did after I got the PICC [Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter] line out basically two months of just skating. You're running a race and you don't get to cross the finish line. I ran the whole thing but didn't finish. That's sort of how it feels. It’s disheartening in every way, and then you're watching your friends, your teammates, struggle. You're trying to be there to help with that [and] you can't. So many things this year were just unfortunate.”
"Overall, a year to forget with an unfortunate ending on my side."
— NESN (@NESN) April 17, 2025
Charlie McAvoy addressed the media today following the #NHLBruins season. pic.twitter.com/S2RdBDqzQc
McAvoy had been skating for the last month and should be cleared for a perfectly normal summer readying for next year, but only just recently got off the antibiotics for the nasty infection suffered after taking a painkilling shot during the international tournament. McAvoy won’t be playing for Team USA at the World Championships because he hasn’t been cleared to play, but he also said he understandably wouldn’t play because of the guilt over not being healthy enough to help his Bruins teammates down the stretch.
Thursday’s breakup day was the only time McAvoy was going to talk about the infection and shoulder injury, and it was pretty clear the whole experience had been an emotional roller coaster for him.
“Mentally, emotionally, physically, I've gone through so much because of that damn experience. It cost me my season,” said McAvoy on Thursday as Bruins players were clearing out their lockers and undergoing exit interviews at breakup day. “Mentally, emotionally, physically, I've gone through so much because of that damn experience. It cost me my season. It cost me my sanity in a lot of ways. None of this has been easy, and I get emotional when I talk about it, and like, yeah, it was an incredible experience, and I waited my whole life to be a part of something like that. But the way that it ended, and the aftermath of it, and what I had to go through. It cost me a lot more than I was willing to give, and that's unfortunate.
“But it's over now, and I can finally put it to bed, and after we talk about it, I don't want to talk about it ever again, honestly. It cost me a lot. I'm not angry at any one individual. I'm angry at what happened. I'm sad about what happened, a little bit of the ‘why me?’, as I'm sure anyone would ask if happened [to them]. It's a lot of different emotions. I wouldn't say it's just anger. And I'm certainly not angry at any individuals or anything. It's a little bit of just anger about the situation. It cost me my season. It cost me a lot, and I spent a lot of time emotionally just sitting with it because that’s the reality of it. I'm sitting at home with a PICC line [because of the infection] and this and that, and I can't play. I can't help my team. It felt like it was a whole other season. I don't even remember anything before that because I only remember what the last two months have felt like, and it just hasn't been fun.”
Fun or not fun, the argument can be made that the Bruins missed McAvoy more than McAvoy missed not being able to play. The Bruins decision to pack things in at the NHL trade deadline and conduct a fire sale was very much connected to McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm being out for the rest of the season, as was the second half collapse that saw the Black and Gold lose 21 of their last 28 games missing their two workhorse defenders.
Puck people can argue what McAvoy’s true high end is as a No. 1 defenseman, but his absence crippled the Bruins forced to play Nikita Zadorov, Brandon Carlo and Mason Lohrei higher in the lineup. He will need to be a big part of the turnaround along with the other guy wearing a permanent letter on his Bruins sweater, David Pastrnak.
“I'm confident enough to be one of the leaders and lead the team. We have a lot to do as a core of leaders, unfortunately, a couple of them were injured, like Hampus [Lindholm] and Charlie [McAvoy] were injured for a long time,” said David Pastrnak. “Obviously, those are two big keys of our core that you kind of missed on and off the ice.
“it’s been tough, but I [was] confident enough to finish the season missing those two guys, tried to do my best. Moving forward, we still have a good group of core, and we obviously have a lot of work to do ahead. We will put the team together and make sure we become and be a much, much better Boston Bruins team this year.”
There will be plenty of questions concerning McAvoy beyond this season. Certainly, it will be interesting to see how the B’s leadership hierarchy shakes out with McAvoy and Pastrnak clearly jockeying for the potential captaincy of the team. And perhaps there’s a need to bring in an outside impact veteran that can play a prominent leadership role with a team that could have used help in that department as things went sideways often this season.
All of it should add up to major motivation for McAvoy next season after a healthy offseason entering the prime of his NHL career. If he’s ever going to be in the running for a Norris Trophy now would be the time, and often great seasons can be built off adversity and frustrations like McAvoy endured this season.
McAvoy indicated the work toward rebuilding this Bruins team and culture starts immediately with some pretty good pieces in place for next season.
“That starts very quickly after this. Getting together and establishing what we want, what our pillars are going to look like, what we want the culture to get back to, and how we're going to do it. What an opportunity, right?” said McAvoy, who included himself, Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm when talking about the key returning Bruins leaders. “What an exciting challenge that's going to be for us, not just us, but a few other guys, and we're going to take it head-on.
“We're going to do everything that we can. You can't do it by yourself. We're going to do it together and we're really excited about the opportunity and the challenge, what it presents and how we can be a part of the solution.”
Certainly, it will be a whole different equation with a healthy McAvoy and a healthy Lindholm returning next season, but much of this is happy talk until it’s backed up with wins and quality play. There is a lot of work to be done building back up to what this Bruins organization had consistently been up until this year. McAvoy sounded ready to take on that challenge after a hellish season, but there will be a lot of variables at play with a massive offseason ahead for a B’s team at a pivotal crossroads.