Bruins’ Chiarelli brief with comments on Marchand talks
Marchand/By S. Bradley
WILMINGTON, Mass. — After today’s final day of Bruins development camp, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli addressed the situation with Brad Marchand’s agent about as briefly as one could.
“We continue to talk and we’ve had some discussion and I’ll leave it at that,” said Chiarelli.
Well, that doesn’t sound very promising.
Marchand is a restricted free agent and is subject to offer sheets from other teams. Chiarelli has often said that the Bruins are prepared to match any offer sheet one of his players receives.
It’s way too early to be worried about an RFA not being signed. WAY too early. This is a non-story.
My prediction: Contract signed late August, between 2.5 and 3 million, over 3 years.
Yo David: Bird in hand, brother… bird in hand!
Kevin,
He might be valuable, and I am not arguing otherwise, but his talents are complimentary more than central. While he is particularly good at what he does and the way he does it, there are others who bring that as well. That makes his value less than it would otherwise be, and make him less valuable than Rask, Krecji, Seguin, Bergeron, even Lucic (who I do not love). These are all players Chia will have to consider contracts for within the term Marchand is likely seeking. All of these players are of greater value than Marchand is in my eyes. That means that Chia would do well not to concede too much in either years or money, as Marchand will get one of the two (hopefully years). Hopefully he proves himself a part of the core, but considering the depth of talent in front of him, that will be a hard task.
Marchand will get a new deal, he is too valuable to the B’s not to get one. He is the real deal & would be missed big time if not on the Bruins roster. Aside from the obvious offensive talent that he has, it’s the intangibles that he brings to the ice that really makes him valuable.
I also wonder if the new CBA has Chia thinking ahead a bit too.
Although Marchand’s comments make it sound like they aren’t rushing into stuff. Nice to know Marchand has stopped partying and is back to work.
So Marchand wants to party and is unlikely to take any offer sheets (though it is unlikely as detailed by others in previous posts that one not worth matching would be posted.) He just w0n the cup and will likely be enjoying the heck out of that. He will probably be asking more than he’s worth over more term than he should get, but that’s how negotiations work. Worst comes to worst, arbitration happens, we give him what he’s worth for a year and start over next season. It would be nice to keep him long term, but I’m O.K. with not having him be a part of the core because of all the other more talented players with greater upside we have that will need to be locked up next year. Of course, if he decides he wants out, I’m sure someone will be willing to give us a few first-rounders to make our organization even more awesome.
From today’s Chronicle Herald newspaper in Halifax:
A restricted free agent, he has to negotiate a new contract with the Bruins. The parties gave way to off-season training beginning last week.
“I haven’t heard anything yet,” Marchand said of the contract. “They have all summer to do it. There is no rush. They know I want to be there and they’ve informed me they want me to be there.”
And the Cup is here on August 29th!!
No worries yet, lots of time to get something done. I don’t see him having as good of a season as he just had though. Combine the typical sophomore dip, with a Stanley Cup hangover (figuratively and literally), and the fact that he’s got a big ol’ target on him now and you have a down year, IMO. I hope I’m proven wrong though. Either way, I see him in Black & Gold.
Nothing to worry about. The talks are stalling because Marchand keeps slurring his speech and puking all over the table.
has brad been talking to dollar phil?
Like I’ve said before – this is a tough contract. He’s played one year – one hell-of-a-year mind you, but only one. If he’s asking for 4 years or if he’s asking for $3.5 or above – or both… I’d have a hard time pulling the trigger if I’m PC.
Not sure if that is good or bad, but Marchand is kind of in a hard place-we all know he earned a raise, he doesn’t qualify for arbitration and I seriously doubt another team will offer sheet him.
I do wonder what the hold up is-whether it is pay or length of contract or some amount of both.
Let’s not forget some RFA negotiations go on essentially until the season starts and offer sheets are still rare. Plenty of time to get this done.
This reeks of much ado about nothing
uh oh.