I'm glad Boston finally had to pay up, but while I wouldn't call this a true hometown discount Pasternak accepted a "fair deal" and I think he could have a pushed for a good chunk more. It wouldn't have been a good deal had he done it but he's a unique enough talent the Ufa market would have paid him

Bergeron was not typical 1C money. Other 1Cs at the time.

Malkin 8x9.5M
Crosby 12x8.7M
Staal 7x8.25M
Getzlaf 8x8.25M
Stamkos 5x7.5M
....
Bergeron 8x6.875M

It was a huge discount compared to other top centers. Dude could've easily pushed for more than 8M a year.

Marchand was also a team friendly deal. He was 6th in goals and got 6.125M. His deal was similar to Kyle Okposo & Brandon Saad. He could've also pushed for way more.

Somehow missed this. I don't at all get how people can call this a bad deal. Obviously Great contract for Pasta. Nevertheless just as obvious Bees had to do it. Superstar winger, still young. In my mind he would absolutely get this kind of money elsewhere (evrywhere).

Tricky situation for Bees, CAP strained, but this contract holds a value. Dropping him to UFA was never the better option..

Marchand was 6th in goals yes, but it was the first time he cracked either 60 points or 30 goals. It seemed more the exception

So Okposo is a fine comparison. In the 3 years leading up to them signing (Marchand signed September 2016):
Okposo 210 gp 67 g 184 pts
Marchand 236 gp 86 g 156 pts

Converted to an 82 gp equivalent season that's
Okposo 26 G 72 pts
Marchand 30 g 54 pts

So a bit more G's and a lot less points. So why is it unreasonable they got a similar deal? Again marchands career is nuts. Good on him, but it was super unpredictable.

For Bergeron, we all know scoring gets paid. He is and was a generational defensive forward. And imho is still underappreciated across the league for what he can do. But offensively to that point he was about a 50-60 point center. The guys you compared him to are superstars who scored way more than him. I said typical 1c not superstar/franchise C's. I meant he got paid like an average 1st line c. And he did.

You are either missing or ignoring his point. Pastrnak took his discount already when he signed his second contract. Look at Marner/Nylander and their second contracts. Pastrnak was not going to discount a second time nor should he have.

What contender has 11.25 cap space?

You seem to be insinuating that Boston could have signed him for less. Pastrnak is a unique talent who is beloved by teammates and fans alike in Boston. It's a no brainer to sign him and it was going to take a fair deal to do it. To answer your question, Carolina for one. Multiple teams created cap space at the deadline. You don't think teams could create cap space with a full off season to work with?

No, I'm saying no other contender could offer more. Especially considering they couldn't offer 8 years.

Good signing. Pasternak probably could have gotten more on the open market but the 8th year in this contract helps bridge the gap.

I do think he took less than the maximum he could have gotten on the open market, but that's not unique, and is somewhat ingrained in hockey culture. I can't remember the last time an NHL superstar really tried to maximize the value on a contract, even when they make it to the open market. Gaudreau is the most recent example, and he absolutely could have gotten more than he took, and Tavares apparently could have as well. The last superstar I can think of that really seemed like they were trying to maximize their contract was Kovalchuk.

Either way, the Bruins do well here, but it does somewhat debunk the narrative that Bruins players just take way less to stay as Bruins. It's a good deal for them, but it's very much in line with what you would expect a contender to offer to retain a player of Pastranak's calibre.

I don't see Bergeron's deal as a huge discount compared to that list when you take it into context. That was Bergeron's 4th contract, and the list you mentioned was 2nd and 3rd contracts. Bergeron was older than any of those players were at the time of signing, meaning those 8 years were riskier. I think he could absolutely have pushed for more, but that's almost always true, and also would have been true for most of those players. Bergeron managed to age so much better than anyone could have expected given his early career injury history, and that is a huge part of that deal turning out to be such a massive value for the Bruins.

Marchand is a bit of a different animal. He again was older, that was his 4th contract, and his contract season was considered a bit of a breakout year, but he was still very underrated by the league (including the Bruins), so I am not sure he could have pushed the deal he got all that much higher. A 7 year deal from the open market would have been a higher AAV for sure, but I doubt he had the clout at that time to get much north of $7M unless he was willing to sign with just anyone. He was a better player than Okposo, but I don't think that was the consensus opinon back when he signed that deal, and again, it's hindsight that makes it look like he took some massive discount.

Marchand though was more of a case of a team finally realizing what they had. Marchand didn't just magically become an offensive force at 28. He was already putting up superstar level production, but his reputation as a shift disturber seemed to decrease the attention his ridiculous offensive skills should have garnered. The guy started putting up elite level scoring rates from his sophmore season onward. The totals just lagged the reality because he was getting less than 15 minutes a night, playing with 3rd line talent mostly and very little powerplay time. Even in his breakout season, he barely got any powerplay time, and as soon as he got the extra minutes with more skilled line mates and top PP time, his totals went up, but his production rates were quite similar.

The reality with Marchand is the Bruins did well by finally figuring out what they had, but signing him before it was obvious that he was an absolute superstar. Both Bergeron and Marchand's contracts were amazing value, but I think that's something that became more obvious after the fact than something that was common knowledge at the time of signing, so I don't know there was as much more money out there for them to get than was often said. The Bruins didn't do well on those deals because the players took incredibly selfless discounts, I think they just understood those players worth more than many other teams would have, and those deals ended up being terrific bets.

Bergeron got an identical deal that Mikko Koivu got 3 years before! Bergeron on the open market would easily get 8.5M-9M. It was a huge discount

Bergeron was 28. Malkin & Getzlaf were 27. It's not some big difference. It's not like he was 32 at the time.

Don't forget Marchand had some insane shorthanded goal totals. His overall totals might've been similar, but his perceived value across the league was much higher.