Just as I stated yesterday while writing about the Bruin’s, the team has announced that they have continued to be in talks with multiple players in order to keep the core together for many years to come. They did so today by announcing that they have agreed to a new contract with star forward Tyler Seguin. The deal is averaged out to be $5.75 million over the next six years. He 
was supposed to be a free agent after this season.
Bruin’s GM Peter Chiarelli confirmed late last week that their annual rookie camp and tournament have been cancelled for this season due to the expiring CBA and potential lockout. As of now, the regular camp is still set to begin on September 17th.
He also said that he is in talks with other soon-to-be restricted free agents after extending Brad Marchand’s contract last week. He would not specify who he has been in negotiations with but Tuuka, Lucic, and Seguin are all set to be Restricted Free Agents after next season (assuming we have one). Who would you lock up first?
The Bruins agreed to a 4 year deal with 24 year old star forward Brad Marchand. The deal is worth 18 million and begins after next season. This will keep
Marchand in the black and gold until after the 2016-17 season.
Last season he scored 28 goals and added 27 assists in only his second season with the B’s. This will make Brad the 3rd highest paid forward on the roster, behind Krejci and Bergeron. If we did not extend his contract, he would have been a restricted free agent after this season (if there is one). 8 days till the old Collective Bargaining Agreement expires and we see our third sports lockout in under a year.
The NHL’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in just less than two months. So far, the players like what they are getting, but the owners want more. The rich trying to get richer, sound familiar? (See NBA/NFL negotiations). The last report shows that the players would make 46% of the revenue for the league, when they made 57% last season. Contracts would also be limited to 5 years in the new proposal. This is a big difference seeing as Zach Parise and Ryan suter both just signed 13 year deals with the Wild, worth $98 million each.
This sucks. Hockey is just becoming very popular again, especially after the playoffs of the past few seasons. They already cancelled the 2004-05 season, due to negotiating problems. Commissioner Gary Bettman is actually a pretty decent guy, especially compared to NBA commissioner David Stern. He said openly that he sees the players as 50-50 partners with the owners.
Since the season is starting on October 11 (hopefully), there isn’t all that much time to get things done. All we need is another lockout to ruin yet another sport.
Unless you’ve been living in Sandusky’s basement for the last few months (too soon?), you’re well acquainted with the NBA lockout situation. Every negotiation has gone from bad to worse and recent news offers almost no hope for a season. However, this monumental collapse has actually overshadowed another extremely critical and game-changing agreement in the MLB.
ESPN.com and almost every other sports publication has attached itself to the Penn State shenanigans, the lockout and the start of college hoops. Simultaneously, an agreement is on the verge of being signed between the MLB and its players that will literally revamp the entire ballgame – I think for the better. According to ESPN, the MLB is about to “realignment of the sport into two 15-team leagues, adding a second wild-card team in each league, spreading interleague play throughout all six months of the regular season and making significant changes to the draft, free agency.”
Whoa now, I like what I’m hearing. Two wild card teams per league basically means that there will be 3 playoff teams from the AL East (one of which will naturally be the Orioles). Nonetheless, it’s great to see a league actually be productive in the offseason. Following one of the most pure baseball years all time, it’s fantastic to see them trying to improve.
David Stern – Bud Selig called and he wants you to get your shit together.
Boston Sports Blog 