Brad Marchand agrees to eight-year, $49M contract with Bruins

The Boston Bruins and winger Brad Marchand have agreed to an eight-year contract extension.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the new deal for Marchand comes in at eight years and $49 million overall. This averages out to $6.125 million per-year. Marchand was slated to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. His current contract is for four years at $18 million.

After Canada’s Saturday World Cup win over Team Russia, Marchand was asked about his contract, and the possibility of going to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The reason for the question had to do with how well Marchand has played in the World Cup on Sidney Crosby’s line. He’s Canada’s second-leading scorer with five points in four games.

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“That’s a long ways away, but there’s a championship games here, we got to think about that first,” Marchand said. “But we’ll deal with whatever needs to be dealt with down the road. But it’s a lot of fun playing with Sid, there’s no question about that. But for now we’ll keep that to here.”

Once endearingly referred to as a “little ball of hate” by President Obama on the Bruins’ trip to the White House after their 2011 Stanley Cup, Marchand has refined himself as a player and gone from pest to high-end scorer for Boston.

Last season the 28-year-old Marchand had a career-high 61 points and 37 goals in 77 games played. He held a 55.73 score, zone and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% and a plus-7.94 score, zone and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% Rel. The Bruins have $59,909,166 million committed to 29 contracts for the 2017-18 season.

Boston had said they wanted to complete a Marchand contract before the start of the 2016-17 season.

“I think the way he works on both sides of the puck. I think all three of us work hard to gain possession to create turnovers. He does that really well. He’s got a great shot. He’s got speed, a lot of different things,” Crosby said. “But I think just the way he competes every shift you know that he’s able to generate a lot sometimes from nothing.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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