Instead of rebuilding, another assault on the Stanley Cup. The return of 37-year-old captain Patrice Bergeron, who did not look at his market value when signing the contract, is key to the ambitions of the Boston Bruins.
At the beginning of the week, hockey Boston signed a contract with centers Bergeron, David Krejčí and Pavel Zacha. And cheaply. In the base, they will make a combined seven million dollars, an amount that is often swallowed by one mainstay of the team.
The Bruins thus composed a more than solid center of attack. When TSN recently ranked NHL teams based on the quality of centers in five categories, Boston finished second. Only Edmonton, Florida and Toronto surpassed him.
Bergeron, who still maintains a high standard of play, pulled the Massachusetts club above the league average at this position.
In the last regular season, he played 73 games and collected 65 points (25+40). He also won the Selke Trophy for the competition’s best defensive forward for the fifth time, setting a record.
He surprised keen observers with statistics that are not visible at first glance. For example, he won bulls like no one else – he succeeded in almost 62 percent of the cases. With the number 536, he also dominated the SAT statistics, which can simply be explained by the fact that when he was on the ice, he provided his team with a shooting superiority like no other hockey player in the NHL.
Even based on this data, The Athletic calculated Bergeron’s market value at a staggering $13.7 million.
Due to his advanced age and crammed salary caps, the Canadian leader would not get that much money anywhere. But he certainly could have demanded a more lucrative contract than the one he gave Boston the nod to.
He agreed to a one-year deal and a guaranteed amount of $2.5 million. He will receive one million in the form of a signing bonus and the rest in the form of base salary.
In addition, he will most likely earn another 2.5 million in the form of a performance bonus. It is enough for him to play ten games. It will help the Bruins. With this bonus, they can easily exceed the salary cap in the coming year. They just have to count on the fact that every dollar “over the line” will reduce their cap by the same amount in the season after next.
Bergeron will get five million anyway. Until now, he was used to a gas of 6.9 million. “Even those were minor compared to his true value,” The Athletic wrote.
In an interview with journalists, Bergeron admitted that he would willingly pay “a few dollars” for the benefit of the team. “For me, hockey is mainly about team success and wins. It’s those that make the difference between a good and a great career,” he said.
At the same time, he objected to the fact that he would come up short financially. “I won’t say that as hockey players we are not well paid. We are, and extremely so. We get more money than I ever dreamed of.”
During his long career, Bergeron has already earned roughly $95 million gross (over two billion crowns). However, he was never among the top ten or twenty highest paid players in the competition, despite winning the Selke Trophy and representing Canada at the Olympics or the World Cup.
He also never left Boston, where he already held the role of assistant captain in 2006. Five years later, he scored the winning goal in the Stanley Cup Final. Now, for the third year, he wears a T on his jersey. “This club means everything to me,” he let himself be heard.
Mentor and one of the centers David Pastrňák, the Bruins will have a hard time replacing when he retires or age catches up with him. “The only way to replace Patrice is by going first in the draft. Maybe. He’s that good a player,” club general manager Don Sweeney said before the Boston legend.
