"We do have to plan and prepare for these players to not be at camp opening day," Neely said in remarks published Friday. "But we have five, six weeks hopefully to get something done. We feel like we should be able to get something done with both of those guys at numbers that make sense for us, and hopefully makes sense for them. I think we've done a really good job of kind of managing the NHL salary cap | Top unsigned restricted free agents]*
"You look at a player that's had some health issues two years in a row at a young age," Neely said. "You look at that and say, 'OK, is that going to stay the same or is it just bad luck?' We all can see what Charlie is capable of doing. You'd like to see a bigger sample size, obviously. Since the cap has come into effect, we've all seen deals that have been signed where three years down the road you say it's not as good as you anticipated it would be.
"Charlie has had three playoff years and two full seasons where he hasn't been healthy. A lot of times obviously that's not his fault, but it's nice to have a better sample size of where a player is going to go. You see the skill set that [McAvoy] has. We want both Charlie and Brandon to be Bruins for their whole career, but we also have to do what's right for the organization."
