Everything is going right for the Boston Bruins this season on and off the ice.
Along with having one of the best regular season performances in NHL history as a team, they also managed to lock up one of their best players, winger David Pastrnak, to a monster contract extension on Thursday that will make him one of the highest-paid players in the league.
The team announced it has re-signed Pastrnak, who would have been an unrestricted free agent after this season, to an eight-year, $90 million contract that will come with an $11.25 million salary cap hit per season. Along with being the maximum length contract, that cap hit is the fifth-largest in the NHL and will trail only Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Auston Matthews and Erik Karlsson.
That should keep Pastrnak in Boston for the majority of his career. It is also a great deal for the Bruins.
Pastrnak has become their best player and one of the most impactful offensive players in the entire league. The stage is now set for him to be their franchise cornerstone for the next decade.
Along with re-signing Pastrnak the Bruins have also been busy in advance of Friday’s NHL trade deadline, acquiring defenseman Dmitry Orlov from the Washington Capitals and forward Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings.
The Bruins enter play on Thursday with a 47-8-5 record through their first 60 games and have a 13-point lead over every other team in the league standings.
With Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in the final year of their current contracts and their future playing days uncertain beyond this season, this is clearly Boston’s last best chance to win another Stanley Cup with this core. They are loading up for that potential run.
If Bergeron and Krejci do decide to call it a career after this season, Pastrnak is now in place to continue on as their cornerstone building block.
