Bruins GM says David Pastrnak will not be traded

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney denied a recent report that the team could trade star winger David Pastrnak due to an impasse in contract talks with the restricted free agent, reports Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.

“Not trading Pastrnak,” Sweeney told the Boston Globe in a brief email.

Rumors of a possible trade had heated up Monday after NHL Network’s Brian Lawton tweeted out that he “would not be surprised” if the Bruins traded Pastrnak. It was the first we had heard about the possibility of the two sides failing to reach an agreement, and it opened the floodgates of speculation over the situation.

Boston has traded big-name young players in the past, such as Joe Thornton, Tyler Seguin, Phil Kessel, and Dougie Hamilton, so fans understandably were weary that the Bruins could go down a similar path with Pastrnak. But the team still has over $10 million in cap space, per Cap Friendly, which gives it ample room to pay for Pastrnak’s big raise.

One of the things that’s apparently dragged out talks between Pastrnak and the Bruins is the waiting game involving Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers. These are the top two restricted free agents left on the market, and CSNNE recently detailed how Pastrnak’s camp is waiting to see where Draisaitl’s final number comes in before signing with Boston.

Pastrnak had been expected to sign a deal in the six-year, $36 million range with the Bruins earlier in the offseason, but that was before Connor McDavid, Ryan Johansen, and Evgeny Kuznetsov helped reshape a more expensive market for star players on their second contracts. Now Pastrnak could reportedly get $7 million or more annually, which would make him the Bruins’ highest-paid player in terms of cap hit.

But it appears one thing that won’t happen is the Bruins getting antsy enough to trade Pastrnak. They still hold his rights as an RFA, so he can only go sign an offer sheet with another team, which Boston could simply match. And given how rare offer sheets have become in the NHL, there’s little concern on the Bruins’ part for that to be an issue.

So they can keep pressuring Pastrnak to make a deal, and at that point, his only real recourse would be to sit out the start of the season, like Jacob Trouba did with the Jets a year ago. That seems unlikely, but it remains possible, especially if the Bruins steadfastly refuse to trade him.

Hopefully this situation will resolve itself simply soon. In the meantime, don’t expect Pastrnak to go anywhere.