With 20 minutes to spare before it officially became a holdout, the Bruins and restricted free agent David Pastrnak came to terms on a six-year, $40 million to keep him in Boston.
The deal will make the 21-year-old Pastrnak the third-highest paid forward as far as yearly cap hits go, at $6.67 million per season (only Patrice Bergeron’s $6.875 million and David Krejci’s $7.25 million hits are higher), and the deal also comes with a no-trade clause when first available.
The contract is really a tremendous value for the Bruins, who eat up some of Pastrnak’s unrestricted free agent years with this six-year extension. And it’s especially valuable when considering that Pastrnak’s camp, led by NHL superagent J.P. Barry, opened this negotiations with the idea that Leon Draisaitl and his eight-year, $68 million contract were a direct comparable.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy expects to begin training camp with Pastrnak skating to Krejci’s right on the B’s second line, opening the door for competition on the right side of the Bergeron-Brad Marchand first line, and a left-side spot open on with Krejci and Pastrnak.
According to a source, Pastrnak will arrive back in Boston from the Czech Republic late tomorrow night, and is expected to be at Warrior Ice Arena and on the ice by Saturday.
In other news, the Bruins have invited veteran winger Teddy Purcell training camp on a professional tryout. The 32-year-old Purcell had two assists in 12 NHL games for the Kings last season, and was a point-per-game talent for their AHL affiliate, connecting for 10 goals and 38 points in 38 games.
Expected to compete against the B’s youth movement -- Anders Bjork, Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, Zach Senyshyn, and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, just to name a few -- Purcell believes that he can be a solution for the Black and Gold’s seemingly constant need for depth scoring in their lineup.
“There’s a lot of good players there, and they’re going to be hungry coming in for spots, and management probably knows them better than they know me,… Purcell admitted. “But as an older guy, you just gotta come in with confidence. I’ve played on teams where I’ve played with a lot of good players, I’ve played up and down the lineup, and there’s a lot of good players here.
“It’s not going to be too new.…
The Bruins will begin the on-ice portion of camp tomorrow morning at Warrior Ice Arena.