David Pastrnak negotiations next item on Bruin to-do list

Don Sweeney put the finishing touches on a pretty neat magic act earlier this week, signing his top two centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to a combined salary cap hit of $3.5 million.

But while the return of the two venerable centers is a good short-term fix for the upcoming season, the Bruins’ GM still has some serious work to perform for the team’s long-term health. And as of right now, there’s no telling whether he’ll be able to push that boulder all the way up the hill.

David Pastrnak, the B’s best goal-scorer who is just now entering prime of his career at 26, is in the final year of his six-year contract that pays him $6.666 million a season. He’s worth a lot more than that in today’s market. Pastrnak could easily look for a maximum length eight-year deal worth $10 million or even more, if he so chooses.

Sweeney has been talking with Pastrnak’s representative, J.P. Barry, about a new deal since the two sides were free to sign an extension on July 13. But while Sweeney has promised to be aggressive in getting a new deal done and making Pastrnak a Bruin throughout his prime years, the update he provided on Wednesday was cause for neither optimism or pessimism.

“Ongoing would probably be the best way to describe it,” said Sweeney. “We’ve been in regular communication. Obviously, David’s still over in Europe and the likelihood is he’ll come back and we’ll talk between now and then. When he gets here, we’ll have a better idea of an ideal timeline, but I don’t have one today. And you guys know me enough that I’m not going to comment publicly on ongoing negotiations. But we’ve been in regular contact with JP.”

While there’s plenty of time to get a deal done, Sweeney certainly does not want to find himself in the position that Calgary GM Brad Treliving found himself earlier this summer. He had hoped to get a deal done during last season for pending fee agent Johnny Gaudreau but, in the end, it turned out that the former Boston College star did not want to stay in Calgary. He bolted for Columbus, and the Flames watched a prime asset walk out the door for nothing.

As of now, Sweeney does not fear the risk of going into the season with Pastrnak unsigned.

“It’s part of the business,” said Sweeney. “Leverages are what they are and conversations are ongoing. We’ve made out intentions known all along. We’re going to continue to do that and we’ll go from there. But as far as entering the season (without a deal), it’s not a problem.” …

While the return of Krejci bolsters the B’s top six, it is still a bit of an unknown what a year away from the NHL will have done to his big league capabilities. But after watching him play in the Olympics and World Championships, Sweeney is confident Krejci, 36, can still drive play.

“David can still play and impact the game,” said Sweeney. “As an organization, we’ve done a decent job in Patrice’s case and David’s case in taking away some primary minutes and spreading things around with situational minutes. We’ll continue to do that. I think the depth we now have in guys that can play the middle of the ice – Pavel Zacha’s part of that, and Charlie Coyle is part of that and (Jack) Studnicka and (Tomas Nosek) – I think we’re in a decent spot. It will be interesting to see what (new coach Jim Montgomery) decides to do with our power play at the start of the year and whether or not David finds his way in that top unit with (Brad Marchand) and Charlie (McAvoy) being out… Impact-wise, he wants to play and impact the game.”

While Sweeney is appreciative of Bergeron and Krejci working with the team to keep the cap hits low, the B’s are still approximately $2.2 million over the cap. Sweeney expects to utilize long-term injury reserve (LTI) with Marchand and McAvoy on the shelf to start the season, but he’ll have to move some money at some point, whether it’s within the organization or a trade. The B’s are one of a dozen teams over the cap right now.

“We have some challenges, as do several teams,” said Sweeney. “We don’t have an issue, certainly through November because of LTI and the likelihood that we’ll be in LTI with the injuries we have. But coming out of it is the math challenge. And yeah, we’ll have to unwind a little but. But we have some mechanisms that we can do that. We know what the levers will be be but you just don’t know what’s going to happen between now and then anyways. We’re prepared to go in a couple of different directions.” …

Sweeney said that longer term deals for Pavel Zacha were discussed, but the two sides landed on a one-year deal for $3.5 million.

“As an organization, we’ve done a pretty good job of targeting players we’ve acquired and being able to extend, whether that’s right away or down the road. Pavel’s a guy we’ve indicated with that we’d like to continue to talk and we can’t do that until later on in the year. But we will hopefully find common ground there,” said Sweeney. “I think Pavel was comfortable in really putting himself in position where he could parlay this. And we’re comfortable as well. We’ve had enough talks. We understand where the marketplace is and where he might fit in there.” …

After former head college scout Scott Fitzgerald left the organization last week to become the Sharks director of player personnel, the B’s announced a number front office maneuvers. Among the more notable moves, Jamie Langenbrunner was named assistant GM for player personnel; Dennis Bonvie was named director of pro scouting; Ryan Nadeau was named director of amateur scouting and Brett Harkins has been named head college scout. John McLean, Tom Ford and David Breen were hired as skating and skills consultants. Also Dustin Stuck has been named head athletic trainer.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/HlNxaLW