While the Bruins are of course very interested in locking him up to an extension, Bruins GM Don Sweeney is reportedly focusing on bringing back Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Meanwhile, Pastrnak might be content to wait for now and get more insight into what direction the Bruins are heading in based on what they do in the coming days and perhaps weeks. The obvious fear for Bruins fans is that the Pastrnak situation ends up mirroring Johnny Gaudreau's, but we're far from at that point. Boston still has Pastrnak locked up for another season, so there's plenty of negotiating time left.

"Nothing that concrete," Sweeney said Wednesday. "We didn't exchange any numbers as I said the other day. Officially, we can now, so we'll go right to work on seeing where David's at. We're going to take an aggressive mindset and hopefully find a common ground and we'll see. There's no timeline on it." The Bruins have already made it clear that they don't intend to rebuild. If that's their intent, then re-signing Pastrnak is vital. While there's no rush, it's better to re-sign him now than let the issue linger.

Pastrnak is eligible to sign a long-term deal beginning on Wednesday as he has one-year left on his current contract before he is eligible for free agency. "They're going to talk to David and attack it as soon as we can," said Sweeney in regards to Pastrnak's agent. "They know the position the organization is in and how aggressive we'd like to be. David has a say in that, obviously, so you hope the two things align and you move forward in an aggressive manner. You're right, he's a big part of the Boston Bruins." Stay tuned.

"I believe Don is meeting with his agent in Montreal here, so we'll see where that goes," said Neely on Wednesday. "But I feel very positive about it." Pastrnak has one more season left on his six-year, $40 million contract.