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Bruins sign Charlie McAvoy to eight-year, $76 million contract extension

Charlie McAvoy

BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 7: Charlie McAvoy #73 of the Boston Bruins against Max Domi #16 of the Arizona Coyotes at the TD Garden on December 7, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

Charlie McAvoy is going to be a Boston Bruin for a very long time.

The team and McAvoy have agreed to a brand new eight year, $76 million contract extension that will keep the standout defenseman in Boston through the end of the 2029-30 season. That comes out to a salary cap hit of $9.5 million per season.

He is currently in the final year of a three-year, $14.7 million contract that has a salary cap hit of $4.9 million per season. Obviously, the next contract is a fairly significant raise almost doubling in average yearly value.

This is honestly a great deal for everybody. McAvoy becomes one of the highest paid defenders in the league -- as he should be -- while the Bruins keep a 23-year-old franchise defender in place for nearly the next decade. He has already become Boston’s best, most reliable defender and is a significant part of their core.

Perhaps what stands out most about this deal is that his salary cap hit is significantly larger than every other player on the roster. Prior to McAvoy’s deal no other player on the team had a salary cap hit larger than David Pastrnak’s $6.6 million deal. The Bruins have had a knack for getting their core players, no matter how good they are, to take contracts that have turned out to be significantly below market value. That obviously did not happen here (and that is fine).

This is the richest contract in Bruins history.

McAvoy is set to begin his fifth season in the NHL and has already established himself as a top-tier defenseman for his ability to defend and help drive offense.

He is already a Norris caliber player and figures to be on the shortlist of contenders for that award for the foreseeable future. He finished 10th in the voting two years ago and climbed all the way up to fifth this past season. It would not be a surprise if he eventually won it at some point in his career.

The $9.5 million salary cap hit is directly in line with a lot of the other contracts signed by defenders this offseason (Miro Heiskanen, Seth Jones, Dougie Hamilton, Zach Werenski) and when you consider that McAvoy is younger than all of them (minus Heiskanen) and significantly better than most of them it is an outstanding deal for the Bruins.