*Photo from MassLive*
After plenty of speculation, the Black and Gold captain is back. The Boston Bruins and C Patrice Bergeron have agreed to a one year, $2.5 million deal, according to an announcement on Monday by the Bruins.
The 2021-2022 season saw Bergeron play out the last season of his previous deal, and he hit free agency after the Bruins were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs. There was speculation swirling around all season that he would retire, but the Bruins captain is back for at least one more season.
Bergeron had an AAV of $6.875 million in his previous deal, which also had a full no movement clause. This year, Bergeron takes a significant pay cut, making $1.5 million in base salary. He gets a $1 million signing bonus to up the AAV to $2.5 million. There is also another $2.5 million in performance bonuses, so he can earn $5 million this season, and still has a full no movement clause.
Last season with the Bruins, Bergeron ended the regular season with 25 goals and 40 assists, recording a +26 plus/minus rating in 18:10 of ice time across 73 regular season games. He added 3 goals and 4 assists in 7 playoff games.
Bergeron said of re-signing in Boston that "The kids obviously love Boston, it's their home as well, so that was a nonissue there. After that, it was more making sure that I missed the game again. And when I had those feelings, I felt like it was it was time and I needed to play one more year and come back. It was more just letting my body and my brain and mentally just know what I wanted, and really listening to that. Once I felt like the desire and the passion was there, to me is the indicator that you need to you need to keep playing."
Across 18 seasons in the NHL, all in a Bruins uniform, Bergeron has 400 goals and 582 assists to his name. He also has a +254 plus/minus rating while averaging 18:46 of ice time per game in 1,216 games. Bergeron has an additional 49 goals and 78 assists in 167 career playoff games.
At the end of last season, Bergeron completed his second season as the captain of the Bruins, becoming captain after Zdeno Chara signed with the Washington Capitals following the 2019-2020 season. He took home the Selke trophy last season for the 5th time, setting an NHL record.
In the 2010-2011 season, Bergeron helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup after posting 6 goals and 14 assists in 23 playoff games. Since being taken by the Bruins in the second round of the 2003 NHL Draft, Bergeron is 3rd in Bruins history in games played and 4th in goals, assists, and overall points.
So far this offseason, the Bruins made a trade for Pavel Zacha and hired Jim Montgomery as head coach. They've lost Erik Haula in the Zacha trade, Anton Blidh to the Colorado Avalanche, and Curtis Lazar to the Vancouver Canucks.
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