"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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