On Friday, the 24-year-old defenseman re-signed with the Bruins prior to reaching free agency, inking a two-year deal worth $2.8 million.
"It gives me a little bit more confidence now going into next year, so I'm just really excited," said Grzelcyk.
Despite the tremendous progress that he has made, Grzelcyk acknowledged that he will still need to earn his spot on the team all over again in the fall.
"I don't think I want to be too comfortable, and I want to make sure that I'm earning everything I get," said Grzelcyk. "It does help, just from a peace of mind standpoint, not having to look over your shoulder as much, but there's still a lot of competition at camp, things like that. Just looking forward to getting another good summer, being healthy and then coming into next year and earning my ice time."
The 5-foot-9, 174-pound blueliner now has 63 regular-season games and 11 playoff games to his credit, and he is more cognizant of the main areas in which his play can improve.
"I can always get bigger and stronger; it's what I always work on," said Grzelcyk, who registered three goals and 12 assists during the regular season. "I think, offensively, just using my feet to my advantage more on the blue line and, obviously, my shot has been pretty much number one that I've wanted to improve this year, so working hard towards that, and, hopefully, it will pay a difference come September and training camp."
The Bruins reached the 50-win mark in 2017-18 despite their influx of youth, and the Charlestown, Massachusetts native said that the team will be prepared to face the rising expectations.
"We obviously had a really good year, and we would like to have still been playing longer, obviously, but I think if you told a lot of people that year was going to happen going into the season, I think they would be pretty happy and pretty surprised with it," said Grzelcyk. "So, expectations are definitely going to grow, and I think we know that going forward. Not that we weren't getting every team's best, but I'm sure we're going to be circled on a lot of calendars going forward, so we have to be more ready in that aspect. I know the guys will be working really hard this offseason to make sure we are."
