While there may only be one quarter of it in the books, the 2021 season has gone in two very different directions for Charlie Coyle and Charlie McAvoy. Both of the BU products have been regarded as central pieces of the team over the past 2+ years. However, in this new-look pandemic NHL, only one of them appears to be backing that up.

McAvoy’s promising upside was rewarded last offseason (2019) when the team signed him to a 3-year contract worth $4.9M per year. He has shown continued growth over three seasons, and seems to be trusted with more and more responsibilities by the day.

The 2020 offseason would prove to be an even bigger opportunity for Chuck, as Torey Krug and longtime Bruins Captain Zdeno Chara left Boston to sign elsewhere. Chara has taken the lion’s share of minutes against other teams’ top lines for more than a decade, and Krug has been one of the premier blue liners on the PP for a number of years.

One might think that (at just 23 years old) all this added pressure, responsibility and ice time could result in some growing pains not only for McAvoy, but for the majority of Boston’s very young D core. Nope. One would be wrong. All that has done is quickly propel McAvoy into the conversation of one of the most dominant d-men in the league.

Through 14 games this season, McAvoy is third on the Bruins with 11 points (behind only Bergeron and Marchand) and leads all defensemen with a +5 rating. He had an eight-game point streak from Jan. 23 to Feb. 10 and has routinely played over 24:00 per game, which is good for top-20 league wide (logging such minutes in 8 out of 14 contests).

The talented and versatile McAvoy is on pace for potentially 40 or more points this season, which would set a new personal record. More importantly, if he keeps up this dominant play there may be a jersey “Addition” coming his way soon. By the way, he’ll just hit the often critically regarded 200 game benchmark in the upcoming outdoor game at Lake Tahoe.

While Weymouth, MA. native Charlie Coyle seems to have always been a Bruin, this is just his second full season in black and gold and the first of his brand new 6-year deal worth $5.25M per year. After an impassioned performance in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs (9G and 7A in 24 games) it was easy to think of him as a Boston lifer, and even easier to justify signing him to the the lucrative contract he now has.

Unlike McAvoy, the 14 games we’ve seen from Coyle this season are a far cry from the 2019 playoffs. He has just 4 points and is a -3 thus far. Even worse, he’s currently riding a seven-game pointless streak, logging fewer than 16:00 in four of the seven games while generating just seven shots in his last six.

Coyle’s game isn’t all about the production on paper. At 6’3” 220lbs. he’s a great combination of speed and physicality. His play shines when he’s heavy on the forecheck and can maintain puck possession that leads to scoring chances. Unfortunately, those very attributes are what have been missing from his game lately.

Coyle has played with a variety of different wingers already this year, but as the third line Center he needs to be the one to dictate play and be a consistent presence in the lineup. I’m sure there were many considerations that went in to his current contract, one of which was probably forecasting the eventual (and now perhaps looming) departure of David Krejci. Krejci has always been one of the points leaders on the team as well as one of the more reliable Centers in the NHL. If Krejci does depart from Boston for whatever reason, we will need to see a better version of Charlie Coyle.

If Coyle can’t prove that he’s consistent and reliable, his contract may just end up being another sad statistic for the Bruins front office. Let’s right the ship now so that in four years we don’t have another guy on the wrong side of 30 making second-line money to be a fourth-line producer.

Jegs-