The Boston Bruins have signed Boston College Eagles captain Marc McLaughlin to a two-year entry-level contract. The contract carries an $883,750 per year cap hit. McLaughlin, 22, is an undrafted player who has grown from being a light-scoring bottom-sixer at Boston College to among their best players. He is from North Billerica, Massachusetts, and now he gets to continue his hockey career in his home state as a Bruin.
On the ice, McLaughlin is a six-foot, 210-pound center. As previously mentioned, McLaughlin has grown in role for Boston College. He had 20 points over 73 games in his first two seasons as an Eagle, playing in a lesser offensive role than he was perhaps used to. At the USHL level, he captained the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders as a point-per-game player before arriving at Boston College. In his third year in the NCAA McLaughlin settled into a larger role and posted 24 points in 24 games, while also becoming the team’s captain. This season he had 21 goals and 32 points in 33 games and also appeared in two games at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, representing Team USA.
For the Bruins, McLaughlin is an interesting prospect and a signing that should be celebrated by their fans. He’s grown into an impact player at Boston College, a program that faces stiff competition as a member of the Hockey East conference. McLaughlin has a leadership element to his game, as evidenced by the “C” he’s had sewn to his sweater for the Eagles and the RoughRiders. And in a fact that should excite the ever-rivalrous Bruins faithful, Boston’s offer won out over “20-plus” competing offers from other NHL clubs, according to Mark Divver of New England Hockey Journal. As an undrafted player whose only cost to the team is taking up one of their maximum of fifty contract slots, (alongside his minimal cap hit) he’s essentially found money for an organization that routinely extracts top talent from college free agency.