Marc Savard Sticks Around: Signs Seven-Year Extension with Boston Bruins

Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli took the necessary steps in securing one of the league's top playmakers Tuesday morning, as he signed 32-year-old center Marc Savard to a seven-year extension, as reported by TSN .

Savard, who has been the Bruins leading scorer each of his last three years with Boston, is expected to have an annual cap hit of $4.2 Million.

It certainly seems as though Savard gave Boston a bit of a "hometown discount" as No. 91 almost surely could have gotten a more lucrative deal elsewhere. But Boston was where Marc Savard wanted to be, and at the end of the day, this deal is good for all parties involved.

This sort of deal has become quite popular in the post-lockout NHL, as players sign longer contracts (generally monetarily front-loaded) as a way to sneak around salary-cap restrictions. There's little doubt that the league is looking for a way to curb these deals, but until the new CBA is negotiated, teams would be stupid not to take advantage of this sizable loop-hole.

Along with this latest development, Chiarelli has already secured David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Tuukka Rask, and Tim Thomas to long-term deals in the past six months (not to mention the extensions dished out just yesterday to most of the coaching staff, coupled with the deal coach Claude Julien signed in the offseason).

It seems as though Boston's management is doing everything within their power to secure the core of this club for years to come.

Apparently, no one consulted "Senior Advisor to the Owner" and former Bruins GM Harry Sinden about this deal.

"I'm not a fan of his," the surely senile Sinden once quipped, "he's one of those guys who has the batting average but no runs batted in. You know what I mean?"

No, Harry, no one knows what you mean.

Asking Harry Sinden for his opinion about securing talent would be a mistake, as any Bruins fan from the 1990s remembers quite vividly. But, for now at least, Boston management seems to have learned from its past mistakes, and went ahead with the deal without putting to much stock in what Sinden thinks these days.

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, a safe-but-effective gift for any Bruins fans these days may just be a Marc Savard jersey. It's practical, and should be in style until at least the year 2016.

An official announcement is expected from the Bruins within the next 48 hours.