BOSTON — The Bruins continued their prelockout signing strategy Tuesday, agreeing with forward Tyler Seguin on a six-year, $34 million contract extension.

Seguin, 20, led Boston with 29 goals and 67 points last season, and posted a plus-34 rating. In and out of the lineup as a rookie in 2010-11, when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, Seguin cemented his place on the team last year and played in the 2012 All-Star game in Ottawa.

Seguin was the No. 2 overall pick by Boston in 2010, and had 22 points in his rookie season as Boston defeated Vancouver in seven games to win the Stanley Cup. The Bruins were eliminated last season in the first round by the Washington Capitals.

On Friday, they locked up forward Brad Marchand to a new, four-year deal. The feisty Marchand, 24, a key cog in the Bruins’ run to the 2011 Cup, will make $4.5 million per season starting in 2013-14. He is scheduled to make $3 million in the coming season, the last of his two-year contract.

Seguin’s salary begins with $4.5 million in 2013-14 and ends with $6.5 million in 2018-19. The contract averages $5.75 million per year.

“We’ve tried to be relatively proactive in extending contracts for guys prior to the start of the season and we’re trying to keep our core together,” Boston General Manager Peter Chiarelli said Friday. “It’s part and parcel of that in what we’re trying to do.

“It may fly in the face of the labor situation at this time, but we feel very strongly in the core of our team. (They’re) players that we know and I think that’s important: Players that we know, that have given us service.”

Despite his youth, Seguin thinks he can be a leader on the Bruins.

“I adapt to new situations well. I’m a confident player,” he said during a conference call with Chiarelli. “I feel like I’ve settled in. … I don’t look at my age as a factor. I want to be a leader even at the age of 20.”

 

LABOR: NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the owners and players are both to blame for their failure to reach a new collective bargaining agreement before the Saturday deadline for a work stoppage.

Daly wrote in an email to The Associated Press that he hoped both sides would meet before Saturday.

“But to this point, we have received no indication that the union has anything new to say to us. And right now, we have nothing new to say to them,” he wrote Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate but it’s the reality of the situation.”

The NHL’s labor contract expires at midnight Saturday night, and a lockout appears certain. It would be the league’s fourth work stoppage since 1992.

“Ultimately, we just want to negotiate a fair deal that will give all our clubs an ability to be stable and healthy,” he wrote. “We hoped (and still hope) we can do that without causing any interruption to the upcoming season. Logic would have suggested we would have been able to. The fact that we haven’t yet is extremely disappointing, and is a failure for which we both must share blame.”

More than 250 players are set to attend the NHLPA meetings Wednesday and Thursday in New York to discuss the current state of CBA negotiations.

The board of governors will meet Thursday at the NHL offices and could authorize Commissioner Gary Bettman to proceed with a lockout on Saturday if a new collective bargaining agreement hasn’t been reached.

Donald Fehr, who took over as union head two years ago, said his players are resigned to a work stoppage, which would follow lockouts last year in the NFL and the NBA. Many of those players will gather in Manhattan this week in this offseason’s biggest show of force.

Industry revenue has grown from $2.1 billion to $3.3 billion annually under the expiring deal. Owners asked players to cut their share of hockey-related revenue from 57 to 43 percent, and then modified their offer to 46 percent during a six-year proposal. Players are concerned management hasn’t addressed their problems by re-examining the teams’ revenue-sharing format.