PHOTO CREDITS: (Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images)
By: Max Mainville | Check me out on Twitter @tkdmaxbjj
As just announced on Friday, July 19th, the New York Rangers and RFA defenceman Jacob Trouba came to an official agreement on a new contract extension. The deal, as being reported by numerous outlets, is a seven-year contract worth an average of $8 million per season until the 2025-26 campaign.
Trouba is a 6-foot-3, 202-pound defenceman who was drafted 9th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. The 25-year-old has spent his entire NHL career with the Winnipeg Jets, scoring 42-137-179 numbers in 408 regular-season games. In the recent 2018-19 season, the Rochester, Michigan native hit the 50-point mark for the first time with eight goals and 42 assists in a full 82-game season.
However, cap constraints in Winnipeg led to the June 17th trade that sent Trouba to the Big Apple in New York with the Rangers in exchange for D Neal Pionk and 2019 1st Round Pick. A little over a month after the trade, the Rangers extend the young blueliner to the contract listed above.
For the Bruins, this news could end up playing a role in the continuing dialogue with fellow restricted free-agent defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo who are still left without a contract for the upcoming 2019-2020 NHL season.
Charlie McAvoy has played in nearly 300 less NHL games than Trouba, scoring 14-46-60 numbers in his respective 117 games. This past season, however, McAvoy’s 7-21-28 stat sheet looks somewhat sub-par compared to the 50-point plateau that Trouba reached. The reason – McAvoy underwent numerous injuries throughout the year and limited him to only 54 games on the ice.
With that said, it is highly likely that the 21-year-old McAvoy played top-two minutes alongside captain Zdeno Chara as he progresses towards being the future franchise defenceman for the Boston Bruins. The potential and growth that McAvoy is expected to reach in the coming years will have to be a talking point as well. Chara does not have much longer as a 20-plus-minute player and the Bruins need to develop McAvoy to take that role sooner rather than later.
That dependence and reliance on the defenceman are similar to the Rangers and Trouba as Jacob will most likely become one of the best defenceman, if not the best defenceman, on the New York club. As previously mentioned, Trouba has a lot more NHL experience than McAvoy – over 300 games worth – but McAvoy does have a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals under his belt, an accomplishment Trouba is lacking.
If there is one factor that allows the Bruins fanbase and the management to take a sigh of relief, it is the fact that Charlie McAvoy is not eligible to be offer-sheeted by any of the other 30 teams in the National Hockey League and possesses zero leverage. Either he plays with a new contract or he sits – nothing else.
The other RFA in the Bruins organization, Brandon Carlo, is a little more concerning. Unlike McAvoy, Carlo can receive an offer sheet from the other NHL franchises and if Boston is unable to match the offer with the salary cap that they currently have, then they run the risk of losing the 6-foot-5 d-man.
Carlo is not known to be a puck-moving, offensive defenceman like a Trouba or a McAvoy, but his role is just as important, if not more important on a successful team. Carlo is more of a ‘defensive defenceman’ and while that sounds like an obvious description of a player, it isn’t all that common in the NHL anymore with the advancements of speed and skill in all positions.
In the three years that Carlo has been on the Boston Bruins, his minutes have increased consistently. In the first two seasons, Carlo showed great developments but suffered heart-breaking injuries late in the campaign that forced him to miss the entirety of the playoffs in both years. However, for the first time in his career, Carlo was able to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Coincidence or perfect reasoning, the Bruins made it to the Cup Finals with Carlo in the lineup. The 22-year-old Colorado Springs, Colorado native averaged the third most time on the ice behind Charlie McAvoy and Torey Krug with an average time of 21:31. There were several instances where Carlo prevented a true scoring chance and turned it into a chance for the Boston forwards the other way. Here are two examples from the second-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
As discussed earlier, Zdeno Chara’s career is winding down and the B’s need that replacement for the years to come after his inevitable departure. If you’re looking more along the lines of similar size and defence, Carlo is the answer. With a 6-foot-5, 212-pound frame, Carlo is a scary presence on skates and he is getting better at using that body – recording the most hits from a defenceman on the Bruins in 2018-19 with 134 hits according to Hockey Reference.
Brandon Carlo did have fewer giveaways than the newest New York Ranger and only a couple fewer takeaways, with Trouba playing only two more minutes on average per game. Both players have a large size and can skate better than older defensemen their size currently in the league.
Trouba’s seven-year, $56 million contract gives the agents of McAvoy and Carlo to have a similar comparison. In this case, McAvoy’s camp may lean against the suggested bridge deal that has many fans intrigued by. There are three things that may be discussed with Trouba and the Bruins’ blueliners and are questions that I have as well.
1. Experience
- Does the regular season experience of Trouba out-weigh the Cup Finals experience of Carlo and McAvoy?
2. Offensive or Defensive?
- Does an offensive defenceman mean more to a team than a defensive defenceman? Is there a comparison there? If so, could the agents of either Carlo or McAvoy use their client as an argument piece?
3. Bridge or Long-Term?
- Does the long-term deal with Trouba mean Carlo and McAvoy will want to lean that way over a bridge deal, considering how much they claim to love playing in Boston?
Will those aspects even be in consideration? Possibly. It is also very possible that the teams of McAvoy and Carlo don’t even bring up Trouba because the differences outweigh the similarities. I personally feel that this bigger deal for Jacob Trouba with the Rangers can play a factor in the discussions for Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo as the 2019 NHL offseason continues on. Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @tkdmaxbjj.
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