Ever since he first joined the Bruins back in 2014, David Pastrnak has gone on to be the franchise guy in Boston. He's the number one intangible, and somewhat untouchable guy for the Bruins. Pastrnak has played with the best of the best -- Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Zdeno Chara -- but as of late, he seems to be the only real elite guy left.
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Anders Lee has two frames of reference as he enters the final season of his seven-year, $49 million deal at age 35. The first is, the Islanders captain went through this all before and can take an objective view on how it all may play out. Secondly, he watched former teammate and longtime friend Brock Nelson go through this last season, ending with his trade to the Avalanche.
While we don't particularly enjoy thinking about the Leafs parting ways with someone who has been a joy to watch hit unsuspecting forwards as hard as possible, it might just come down to a numbers game. As The Athletic's James Mirtle wrote in a recent mailbag, the Leafs are looking for more of a puck-moving presence on the blue line and that should then result in them moving on from one of the more defensively minded defensemen.