An injury-plagued 2024-25 campaign has officially knocked Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy out of his status as one of the top-10 defensemen in the NHL, according to the latest NHL Network rankings.
But fortunately for McAvoy, it wasn’t a fall completely off the board, as the NHL Network had the Bruins’ McAvoy out of the top-10 but in the No. 11 spot on their Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list.
In this year’s rankings list, the Oilers’ Evan Bouchard, Nashville’s Roman Josi, Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin, Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin, Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey, the Lightning’s Victor Hedman, the Stars’ Miro Heiskanen, the Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski, Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes, and Colorado’s Cale Makar were the 10 defensemen that ranked ahead of McAvoy.
It was also a four-spot drop for the 27-year-old McAvoy, who finished seventh on last year’s list. It also continued what’s been a multi-year slide for McAvoy on the NHL Network’s annual list, with McAvoy ranking 5th in 2022 before dropping to 6th in 2023 and then 7th in 2024.
Of course, McAvoy’s aforementioned injury issues in 2024-25 certainly had to play a factor in this year’s drop, with McAvoy on the shelf for 32 games in total last season and out of action for the remainder of the season after suffering an injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February.
In his 50 games for Boston a season ago, McAvoy posted seven goals and 23 points, along with 89 hits and 81 blocked shots, and an even rating.
“Yeah, not a great year, really, by any stretch,” McAvoy admitted at the end of the season. “There were certainly some pockets of some good memories. But overall, really, a year to forget with an unfortunate ending on my side.
“There really isn’t much. Honestly, it’s all just motivation, really, to not feel like this again. Never been here and I don’t want to be here again, so that’s kind of where we’re at. The struggles I had this year they’re well-known, and it was unfortunate, but I’m excited to put a close on this chapter. Be done with it, honestly, to just get it behind me and then move on from here.”
Given a clean bill of health ahead of the start of a new season, and with first-year head coach Marco Sturm tasked with getting the Bruins back to being more of a defense-first team, McAvoy’s bounce back may very well hold the key to the Black and Gold getting back to the postseason in 2026.