Talks between the Boston Bruins and David Pastrnak’s agent continue. But with training camp a week away, there is still no deal in place.
Pastrnak is Boston’s lone remaining restricted free agent to get under contract. The 21-year-old forward broke out offensively last season with 34 goals and 70 points.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney offered an update but didn’t get into specific details about those contract talks, prior to the opening of rookie camp.
“Status quo there,” Sweeney told reporters on Thursday. "[Pastrnak’s agent] J.P. [Barry] and I continue to talk and will continue to talk and find a deal at some point in time. But there’s no timetable on it and nothing really to expand on other than the nature of the talks have been ongoing.”
It’s already been reported that the Bruins have offered a long-term deal at $6 million per year. Last week, it was reported that Pastrnak’s camp was going to ask about an eight-year contract. That put Cam Neely in a position to discuss the possible impact Leon Draisaitl’s new deal in Edmonton might have on these specific negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Bruins would probably like to sign Pastrnak to something more like the six-year, $40.5 million ($6.75 million) contract that Johnny Gaudreau agreed to with the Calgary Flames roughly a year ago. That kind of deal would pay him more than Cup-winning veteran Brad Marchand, but it would be a tick less than Patrice Bergeron ($6.875 million) and David Krejci ($7.25 million) in Boston’s internal salary structure.
According to CapFriendly, the Bruins currently have about $10.1 million in cap space.
Ideally, the Bruins would like to have a deal done before training camp begins in order to avoid one of their top forwards missing any time as the team prepares for the regular season.
“I was on record a while ago, and I think I read even a general manager yesterday talking about [it]… nobody really hides from the fact that I don’t think it’s productive on either side [to miss camp],” Sweeney told reporters.