PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- Charlie McAvoy said he feels "great" and is ready to get back to work for the Boston Bruins after missing the final 25 games of last season with a shoulder injury.
"It was a long summer, but in a lot of ways it was beneficial," McAvoy said Wednesday, "a chance to have a lot of months, to put in a lot of work, which is nice, something that I haven't really had since we have always been a playoff team.
"It was a longer summer, but I used it to my advantage."
The defenseman took part in the United States Men's Olympic Orientation Camp and was one of six players named to the preliminary roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 in February. He also represented the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off but injured the acromioclavicular (AC) joint of his right shoulder in a 6-1 win against Finland in the opener of the best-on-best tournament at Bell Centre in Montreal on Feb. 13.
McAvoy had treatment and played against Canada two days later, a 3-1 victory, but it didn't feel like an AC joint injury. Instead, a marked redness was creeping up his shoulder. The doctors were confused, and McAvoy was in severe pain.
After the U.S. team arrived in Boston for the second leg of 4 Nations, McAvoy had X-rays, MRIs and bloodwork at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was diagnosed with an infection, necessitating an irrigation and debridement Feb. 18.
McAvoy did not play again. The Bruins (33-39-10) finished last in the Atlantic Division and 15th in the Eastern Conference to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.
"What happened to me was simply bad luck," McAvoy said April 17 during breakup day. "There's always a risk of that happening, but you don't ever hear about it. And it happened to me, so you want to talk about a perfect storm, the why me and how did this happen? There's not necessarily that anyone did anything wrong; I just happened to have an infection that took place.
"The reality is there's no one to blame. It's just bad luck that this happened."
With McAvoy out of the lineup, the Bruins sent captain Brad Marchand to the rival Florida Panthers before the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7. Florida won the Stanley Cup for the second straight season.
"I got healthy pretty close to the end of the season," McAvoy said. "If we had been in a different situation, I could have played. I would have played if we had made the playoffs, but it was probably for the best that I didn't have to and gave my shoulder a full chance to heal and feel good this year."
The 27-year-old is entering his ninth season and has played all 504 of his NHL regular-season games for the Bruins, but this is the first time in his NHL career that Boston is entering a season after missing the playoffs.
Marco Sturm was named coach June 5.
"It's different, really, from any year that I've had, because we don't miss the playoffs," McAvoy said. "We're trying to reestablish our culture, which we feel like maybe slipped a little bit. Obviously, you're going through a coaching change, so we have a bunch of different things that we're trying to bring in, but the way that we all see it is what an incredible opportunity."
So is playing for the United States.
With NHL players going to the Olympics for the first time since Sochi in 2014 and getting a taste of international best on best at 4 Nations, McAvoy can't wait for the 2026 Games.
"That was what we were all waiting for, to get a chance to play best on best," McAvoy said. "And going into [4 Nations], I think it was like, just the butterflies, the nerves, like this is the dream, is to play in this. The 4 Nations wasn't a thing, so it was always Olympics. And then 4 Nations became a thing, and it still was very, very special. But here we go, and now it's the dream come true."
NHL.com senior writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report
