Dreger shares the latest on David Pastrnak’s contract negotiations

Sep 30, 2022 - 4:00 PM

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Opening Night is just under two weeks away, and the Bruins’ biggest piece of outstanding business remains sorting out David Pastrnak’s contract situation.

The B’s best offensive player will be a restricted free agent at season’s end, and while both sides have mentioned having an appetite to get something done, there wasn’t much happening over the summer.

According to TSN’s Darren Dreger (starts around 4 minutes into the video), however, things may be trending in the direction many Bruins fans hoped:

“It’s a process, and we use that word a lot when talking about extensions or negotiations. Both sides are assessing the market right now. I can tell you that contract discussions have heated up since camp has opened...relatively quiet over the summer, not unusual. Pastrnak understands, and he’s clearly hopeful that something will get done sooner [rather] than later.”

The last bit there echoes the sentiments of Pastrnak himself, who indicated at a recent scrum that he’d like to stay.

(Of course, the cynics among us would point out that no player is going to pull up and say “nah, I haven’t decided, might skip town.”)

One would imagine that given the injuries to start the season, new players in the mix, a new coach, etc. the last thing the B’s want to do is let a Pastrnak Contract Saga drag on as the season gets underway.

Ideally, something gets wrapped up relatively soon.

Dreger certainly doesn’t know everything (and I know posters here have varying opinions on his “scoops”), but usually once these things start to trickle out, it means a deal is close.

Whatever the deal ends up being, it’ll almost certainly be the biggest contract in Bruins history, and it’d be hard to argue he doesn’t deserve it.