Patrice Bergeron has been a fixture in Boston’s lineup for the past 17 seasons and if they have their way, that stint will be extended beyond the upcoming 18th year in 2021-22. Speaking with reporters including NHL.com’s Tracey Myers, Bruins GM Don Sweeney indicated that discussions regarding a contract extension for Bergeron have been started:
Patrice and Kent Hughes, his representative, and I have had discussions about where Patrice is at. We’ll keep those private as we do all the others and let him decide what path he wants to take. Obviously, it’s a completely open door for how long Patrice wants to play the game for us, and we’ll leave it at that.
The 36-year-old sits third in franchise history in games played and fourth in points and remains one of the premier two-way players in the league. He’s a four-time Selke Trophy winner for the top defensive forward in the NHL and has been a top-three finalist for that award in ten straight years. Over that stretch, he has averaged at least 0.76 points per game and over the past four seasons combined, he has been a bit better than a point per game player. That has made him an extremely valuable part of their core and after Zdeno Chara left last fall, Bergeron became their captain.
Considering that Bergeron hasn’t really slowed down much over the last few years, it’s more than understandable that Boston would love to keep him around. It’s also a situation where they almost have to keep him. David Krejci opted to go back home to the Czech Republic (though Sweeney wouldn’t rule out a return down the road) which took away the other half of their long-standing center duo. Internally, they’ll rely on Charlie Coyle to shift back down the middle and there is no top-line center prospect in the pipeline. Basically, there isn’t anyone ready to take Bergeron’s place, emphasizing the need to keep him around.
Bergeron is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $6.875MM AAV and assuming he has a similar season to 2020-21, he could get more money on the open market if he wanted to go somewhere else. However, the likelier scenario is that he would leave some money on the table and would sign for something close to what he’s making now. With talks underway and a mutual desire to get something done, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Bergeron’s stay with the Bruins is extended even further.
Probably the most underrated player of this era.
I honestly can’t think of another.
Patrice F. Bergeron, Faceoff Machine. Pencil him in for 20G+/30A+ virtually every year, takeaways to giveaways ratio always good, doesn’t dish out hits a lot, but typically 40+, and blocks a few shots for light relief. His HockeyReference pic caption should read something like this – “While you were looking at me from your side of the faceoff dot, strategizing, I picked your pocket three times, and just fed it to #88 for an easy tap-in. #63 was there for any sloppy seconds, too…”
I don’t know why some aren’t overly enamored with him. It’s like they think his stats are a product of home cooking at The Garden. Reminder to those guys – he also shows up for road games.
From how his career started out in Boston till now it’s a great site to see there was a time everyone thought he’d be better of retiring because of the concussion problems what a true fighter and legend in my eyes