Patrice Bergeron officially re-signs with Bruins
BOSTON -- The long wait is over. The captain is officially back. Patrice Bergeron has signed a one-year contract to return to the Boston Bruins.
The deal will pay Bergeron just $2.5 million in base salary, with $2.5 million more available to be earned through performance incentives.
Renaud Lavoie reported that it won't be all that difficult for Bergeron to hit those "performance bonuses," as Bergeron will only need to play in 10 games to activate the $2.5 million in incentives. That money, though, won't hit the salary cup until the following season, thus allowing GM Don Sweeney to work with a little more cap space this summer.
Bergeron had been mulling retirement since Boston was eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the NHL playoffs, but is now back for his 19th season with the Bruins. The team sent out a bit of a teaser tweet on Monday morning prior to making the announcement.
Bergeron, who turned 37 years old in July, played in 73 regular season games for the Bruins in 2021-22. He scored 25 goals and dished out 40 assists for 65 points, which was good for third on the team behind only Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.
A master at the dot, Bergeron led the NHL with 991 faceoff wins and a winning percentage of .619 last season.
Bergeron won his fifth Selke Award this offseason, setting a new NHL record for the award. He also tallied three goals and four assists in seven playoff games for the Bruins last season.
Now the captain is back for another year in the spoked B.
