( Photo Credit: NHL.com )

By: BNG Staff | Follow us on Twitter @BlackNGoldPod

Charles McAvoy is an American professional ice hockey defenceman for the Boston Bruins in the NHL. He was selected as the 14th overall choice in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft by the Bruins. As of 2021, he is only 23-years-old and has had quite an impressive career already.

If you are interested in NHL player futures odds, this is certainly a player to keep your eyes on; why? Let’s tell you.

How did his career begin?

He started his career in the 2010 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the New York Rangers minor ice hockey team. Then in 2013, he committed to playing college hockey at Boston University. He played for the Hockey National Team Development Program in the US Hockey League for two seasons.

Then during the 2015 to 2016 season, the NCAA men’s ice hockey BU coach David Quinn paired McAvoy with the star defenceman and future fellow player in the NHL, Matt Grzelcyk, who was already selected as a third-round 2012 NFL Entry Draft pick by the Boston Bruins.

McAvoy was part of the gold medal-winning team at the 215 IIHF World U18 Champions and was a member of the bronze medal-winning U-20 team at the ‘26 World Junior Ice Hockey champions. So, we already know that at the very start of his hockey career, he was doing very well.

He was a legend already, and leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft, he was highly regarded by scouts and was considered as being one of the top defenceman available. He was also a member of the USA team that won the gold in the 2017 Junior Ice Hockey Championships and was awarded Player of the Year in the gold medal game.

McAvoy in the NHL

In 2017, he ended his college hockey career when he signed for an amateur try-out with the Providence Bruins, the team’s NHL development organization, and less than a month after he started, he signed an entry-level NFL contract.

His first game was on April 12th in 2017, winning a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Although he had no previous NHL experience at this point, he logged the second-most ice time on the team in an impressive feat. At a point in time when four of their top six defenders ended up injured, McAvoy notched three assists in just six games.

By mid-June that same year, the Hall of Fame legend Bobby Orr was speaking highly of McAvoy already and said that his level of talent and work ethic was succeeding in NHL level playing.

By the end of his first year in the NHL, McAvoy scored a Gordie Howe hat trick, which is an unofficial statistic in which a player gets a goal, an assist, and a fight all in one game which he did against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Not long after the 2018 New Year, McAvoy ended up on the operating table for symbols of supraventricular tachycardia, he took two weeks to recover, and by the 29th of January that year, he resumed practicing… only one week after the procedure!

McAvoy’s recent career

In his 2018-2019 season, McAvoy was taken out of the Bruins’ lineup due to having a concussion in a game against the Edmonton Oilers. He was officially placed on the injured reserved. He returned to the game and was later suspended due to an illegal check to the head of an opponent.

But, still, in September 2019, he signed a three-year contract for $14.7 million with the Bruins, and then again in October 2021, he signed an 8-year contract for $76 million with the bruins as an extension.

Expect to see much more of him and his fantastic skill soon.