Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said last week that he had made it clear to David Pastrnak’s agent, J.P. Barry, that he wanted Pastrnak “to be a lifelong Bruin.”
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The first step towards that would be to sign the 26-year-old Pastrnak, who is entering the final year of his contract, to a long-term extension this summer. And the first day that the Bruins and Pastrnak could officially begin to negotiate that extension was Wednesday -- one league year from when Pastrnak’s contract expires.
So, did those negotiations begin? Well, no.
“No, nothing concrete,” Sweeney said when asked about Pastrnak late Wednesday afternoon. “We didn’t exchange any numbers, as I said the other day. Officially we can now. So, we’ll go right to work in seeing where David’s at and we’ll take an aggressive mindset and hopefully find the common ground and see. There’s no timeline on it.”
Pressed on why they hadn’t exchanged numbers yet, Sweeney cited Wednesday being the first day of free agency and other matters taking priority for the time being.
“Well, today was the very first day, in all honesty, that you could actually put a number in front of the player,” he said. “So, with a lot going on elsewhere, it’s just not an area we’ve touched on. Maybe I’ll call tonight and let you know after that, whether or not I’ve actually exchanged numbers if you’re that concerned about it. But we’re going to attack it in an aggressive mindset and see where it hopefully plays out. That’s really the timeline to be more definitive and answer your question.”
On one hand, free agency is more time-sensitive than extending a player who still has a year left. Teams and players move quickly, as evidenced by the fact that more than half of Daily Faceoff’s top 75 available players signed within the first seven hours of free agency opening. And for Sweeney, finalizing new contracts for Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Wednesday trade acquisition Pavel Zacha remains a priority.
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On the other, Sweeney has had plenty of time to think about what his opening offer to Pastrnak will be, and it doesn’t seem like just putting it on the table would have derailed the rest of the day.
It’s also not exactly rocket science to figure out what Pastrnak’s next contract might look like. It’s probably going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of what Charlie McAvoy got last year, which was eight years at $9.5 million per year. So, the first offer to Pastrnak would have to at least be within shouting distance of that.
Ultimately, it’s not the end of the world that the Bruins and Pastrnak didn’t talk Wednesday. There is time. But it’s also not accurate (or at least it shouldn’t be) to say there’s “no timeline,” as Sweeney did.
The Bruins at least need to know that they’re on the path towards an extension this summer. They don’t want to lose Pastrnak for nothing next summer, so getting clarity now is necessary. And getting a new deal done as soon as possible would be ideal.
That won’t happen until the two sides actually talk numbers, though. Sweeney didn’t necessarily have to rush into that on Wednesday, but he probably shouldn’t delay too much longer, either.