"The Gang's All Here, Now Let's Get to Work On Winning a Stanley Cup,"-The 2019-20 Bruins

Well that was fast. Bruins GM Don Sweeney probably hasn't slept for over a week now but it's tough to argue with his recent results as he's signed head coach Bruce Cassidy to a three-year extension, potential franchise cornerstone defenseman Charlie McAvoy to a three-year deal and he rounded it all off this morning with a two-year contract for another young defenseman-Brandon Carlo. Perhaps showing you how little I know about negotiations, I guessed in my blog about McAvoy's agreement ($4.9 million annual cap hit) that Carlo would get somewhere in the range of $3 million per year. Haha incorrect (cue the obnoxious buzzer sound) as Sweeney got him to sign for an annual NHL cap hit of only $2.85 million.

As outlined before, Carlo will likely never make as much as a player like McAvoy since his offensive skills are shall we say limited at best. Still, he's an excellent stay-at-home, big body (6-foot-5, 212 pounds) right-shot defenseman. In his favor, he's also been more durable thus far than McAvoy as evidenced by the games played in his first three regular seasons: 82, 76 and 72. Does it bother me that those numbers have gone down the last two seasons? Not really, especially when you consider the buzzard's luck he had his first two years by getting hurt in the last game of back-to-back regular season finales.

Brandon finally got a huge taste of playoff hockey last spring and summer and it can only be termed a resounding success. Making up for lost time, he played in all 24 games for Boston in the postseason and registered two goals, two assists and a plus/minus rating of plus-10 (2nd best on the team) while he averaged 21:31 time on ice (3rd best). In the regular season, he had two goals and eight assists with a plus-22 rating (tied for 2nd) with an average time on ice of 20:55 (4th on team). Since his NHL debut, he ranks fourth on the B's in terms of both plus/minus (plus-41) and time on ice per game (20:20).

He is a dependable workhouse and although, he'll rarely give you the moments of offense brilliance like McAvoy, you know what to expect from Carlo. He's quiet but clearly a leader that the many younger players on the club look up to and that the older guys respect as well. I'm sure Sweeney is hoping that like McAvoy, he'll make this contract seem like a bargain when it is up in a few years and by that time, he'll be eligible for much more money and years along with a leadership position on the team (captain, assistant captain, etc).

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Charlie McAvoy Cares Not For Holdouts As He Signs a Three-Year Deal With the Bruins

A few days after inking head coach Bruce Cassidy to a contract extension, Bruins GM Don Sweeney continued to get things done as this morning he signed defenseman Charlie McAvoy to a three-year deal with an average annual value of $4.9 million per year which is quite reasonable. There were never any whispers of a holdout by McAvoy so in many ways, this moment was a mere formality but it still represents an important day for the Black and Gold.

Coming into his third NHL regular season, McAvoy is still only 21-years-old (he turns 22 on Dec. 21) but the 2016 first-round pick for Boston (14th overall) is without question one of the most talented young defensemen in the league. In 117 career regular season games, he has put up a more than respectable 14 goals and 46 assists with a plus/minus rating of plus-34. In that span, he has nine power-play points (3 goals, 6 assists), five game-winning goals and two overtime goals. In the playoffs where scoring is understandably harder to come by, his offensive numbers are down but still solid: three goals and 13 assists with a plus-four in 41 games.

In his brief professional career, really the only thing to quibble over with McAvoy is his durability. He played in 63 regular season games his rookie season and an even more concerning 54 last year. Granted, the only game he missed in Boston's run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final was a one-game suspension. McAvoy isn't huge by today's standards (6-feet-tall, 208 pounds) but he plays a pretty physical style so it's tough to pinpoint why he's already missed so much time. It hasn't been any major injuries with him but rather numerous minor issues including a bizarre illness at the beginning of last season.

The B's should again be a contender in the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference so honestly, I don't expect nor do I want McAvoy to play 82 games in the regular season. As long as he plays more than he did in the first two campaigns and is healthy come playoff-time, who cares? On the eve of their preseason opener tomorrow night in New Jersey, the only player left unsigned for Sweeney is defenseman Brandon Carlo. He is a year older McAvoy both in terms of age (22) and years played already in the NHL (3). He also plays a far less sexy game meaning that he is a prototypical defensive defenseman that will never put up any real offensive statistics of note. Still, he is very good at what he does and could be a top-pairing defenseman if Bruins captain Zdeno Chara ever retires. Keep in mind though that Cassidy and many NHL head coaches love to play left shot and right shot defensemen together when possible.

Carlo is super low-maintenance and he has been a professional from Day 1 when he was a second-round pick (37th overall) of the Bruins in 2015. Despite being away from his teammates this summer and in the early going of training camp, Cassidy has expressed confidence that Carlo is in great shape and ready to hit the ice whenever he officially returns to the team. I have no inside information on this (I wish I did) but expect him to get a new deal this week for roughly the same amount of years and less money ($3 million and change per year?) than Charlie. These are two of Boston's best building blocks from the defensive end for now and hopefully years to come.

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Fear Not Bruins Fans, Bruce Cassidy aka Cool Dad Is Here to Stay (For Awhile Longer At Least)

Odds are that you understandably still haven't gotten over the Bruins' wretched choke job in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals vs. St. Louis that occurred just over three months ago. Making it that far means that Boston had a shorter off-season than usual so don't look now but the 2019-20 NHL regular season is only a few weeks away. Furthermore, with training camp opening tomorrow for the veterans on the B's, they did some housekeeping this morning by signing head coach Bruce Cassidy to the always vague multi-year contract extension (2 years, 5 years, lifetime, who knows?!).

While it will always be debatable really how much a head coach can affect a given NHL game, the numbers back up Cassidy in terms of putting him on the short list of the best at his position currently in the league. He's been here for roughly 2.5 regular seasons and three postseasons with his team getting better each year: a first-round playoff exit vs. Ottawa in 2017, a second-round loss to Tampa Bay in 2018 and the aforementioned mind-numbing loss to the Blues. In his first two full seasons in charge of the Black and Gold, the club has finished in a more than respectable second-place in the Eastern Conference. Overall, he is 117-52-22 (a .670 winning percentage) in the regular season which is the fourth-best winning percentage in team history.

Right away after he replaced former Bruins head coach Claude Julien on Valentine's Day 2017, Cassidy was a breath of fresh air. Julien was a great coach here for the most part but his act of the all-knowing hockey dictator had gotten old for the players, fans and media. Bruce is refreshingly honest which in pro sports (and especially in the same region as Bill Belichick) becomes more rare to come by each day. He's a youthful 54 years old (5 years younger than Claude), has young kids like many of the players and he appears to be able to relate to them very well. Most importantly, he has brought results as guys clearly enjoy playing for him. Of course, putting a Stanley Cup on his resume would have allowed him to advance to another level. However, this contract gives him job security which is all that anyone ever wants.

Once again, the B's should be in the mix for the top teams in the East and the National Hockey League in general this season. On the player side, the next order of business for Boston is to lock up their two young franchise defensemen-Charlie McAvoy (who is 21) and Brandon Carlo (who is 22)-who are both restricted free agents. The always helpful CapFriendly.com website (formerly CapGeek) projects the Bruins to only have about $7.2 million left in cap space so it'll take some creative maneuvering by GM Don Sweeney to figure out how to pay those players what they are worth while not forcing them to holdout. I would normally worry about it more but Sweeney went to Harvard and I didn't (you probably weren't an Ivy Leaguer either) so let's trust the smart people to figure this all out.

The six-game (why is it that long?) preseason begins next Monday in New Jersey followed by two more road games in Philadelphia and Chicago before three straight home games at TD Garden against the same opponents starting on Monday, September 23. Preseason hockey is no different than any other sport, it's a complete bore so before you fall asleep, let me leave you with this: the Bruins open for real on October 3 in Dallas (8:30, NESN) vs. Tyler Seguin & Co. Boston has a four-game road trip to start this campaign, taking them from Arizona to Vegas to Colorado before the home opener on Saturday, October 12 vs. New Jersey (7, NESN). The Ducks come to town for the annual Columbus Day afternoon game (1, NESN) and the Lightning are here for an early-season showdown on October 17 (7, NESN).

Enjoy the warm weather while it fleetingly lasts but remember that the grind that is an NHL season is right around the corner and that's something to always be excited about, especially with a loaded and likeable group such as this one.

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