Bruins' McAvoy out approximately 6 months after shoulder surgery

Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy is expected to miss approximately six months after undergoing a left shoulder arthroscopic stabilization procedure, the team announced Friday.

Under that recovery timeline, the Bruins may not get their star blue-liner back until December.

McAvoy isn't the only Bruins defenseman who went under the knife Friday. Matt Grzelcyk received a right shoulder open stabilization procedure and is expected to be sidelined for five months, while Mike Reilly's recovery is set to take three months after he underwent a procedure to repair his right ankle tendon and remove bone fragments.

In addition to McAvoy and Grzelcyk, the Bruins will likely also start the season without star forward Brad Marchand. The 34-year-old underwent successful surgery on both hips May 27 and is slated to miss approximately six months.

McAvoy led his team in ice time (24:38) this regular season while pacing all Boston blue-liners with 56 points in 78 games. He also topped the B's in average ice time (24:54) during the playoffs.

The Bruins managed to direct the majority of the play with McAvoy on the ice at five-on-five this campaign, controlling 57.8% of the shot attempts and 62.8% of the expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Grzelcyk's 24 points in 73 regular-season contests trailed only McAvoy among the Bruins' defense corps in 2021-22, and the 28-year-old averaged almost 19 minutes per game.

He didn't play in Games 6 and 7 of the Bruins' first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes due to an undisclosed issue.

Reilly, meanwhile, contributed four goals and 13 assists in 70 regular-season games.