Although David Pastrňák’s contract expires in a year, he will already be one of the most watched hockey players when the NHL market opens this year. If he does not agree on further cooperation with Boston in advance, he will be exchanged.
Pastrňák can sign a new contract at the earliest on Wednesday, July 13, i.e. about a year before the current one expires. On the opening day of the free agent market.
In recent weeks, pessimism has reigned in Boston. There was speculation in the media that Pastrňák would definitely not stay with the Bruins if general manager Don Sweeney continued to lead them, and more than a third of the club’s fans estimated that the Czech gunner would leave.
However, the player’s agent JP Barry countered by stating that both have a “solid relationship” with Sweeney.
The manager himself later made it clear that he clearly wants to keep Pastrňák. “David could score 50 goals in the NHL. He’s a really good player, he shows it to us all the time. He’s a superstar in the league and in the world. We’re lucky to have him,” Sweeney said in Montreal during the draft meeting with agent barry.
However, he did not present him with a specific offer: “We haven’t discussed the numbers yet. I just strongly mentioned for our side that we would like to have David with us until the end of his career and that we will aggressively pursue it.”
Pastrňák currently earns an average of $6.7 million per year, so he is significantly undervalued. Another contract could bring him between 8.5 and 11 million. And the length? It is realistic that the Bruins will offer the Czech shooter an eight-year contract, at the end of which he will be 35 years old.
According to the recent surveys According to the NBC station, about 86 percent of Boston fans want Pastrňak to stay long-term. So only a negligible minority is for the exchange.
The Bruins will reach for a trade only if they can’t come to an agreement with Pastrňák. They can’t afford to lose him without a replacement in the year he’s out of contract.
If Pastrňák plays for Boston next season, it is possible that he will reunite with his friend David Krejčí. At the last World Championship in Finland, where the Czechia won a medal after a ten-year wait, they shone together in places so much that the Boston fans from across the ocean were dreaming. According to reactions on social networks, they wanted Krejčí to return.
The 36-year-old center surprisingly chose to work in the extra-league Olomouc last season, but now he is really talking about returning to Boston, as informed for example, Lou Merloni from a regional station in Massachusetts.
After all, Sweeney does not hide the fact that he is in contact with Krejčí. “It’s just a matter of when David decides and if he chooses us,” he said of the veteran, who collected 44 points (8+36) in 51 games for the Bruins in the season before leaving for the extra league.
Boston currently has no elite center under contract. In addition to Krejčí, he is also negotiating with the same age Patrice Bergeron, whose contract at the Massachusetts club has expired and he is deciding what to do next. Overseas media are also linking the Bruins with star centers Nazem Kadri and Vincent Trocheck, who will be in a market battle.
No matter how Sweeney turns out in the coming weeks, what is certain is that starting next season, Boston will be led by coach Jim Montgomery instead of Bruce Cassidy. He celebrated coaching success in the juniors and at the university, but in the NHL he has a setback in the form of being fired from Dallas due to alcohol problems. After treatment, he worked as an assistant for two years at St. Louis.
