Bruins re-sign Patrice Bergeron to creative deal, may have to make a trade to become cap compliant

The Boston Bruins have been sitting at 21/23 contracts for some time now, and with rumours that they were looking to bring back captain Patrice Bergeron and former Bruin David Krejci, something was bound to happen eventually. Well, you can check off one of those boxes, as the Bruins have announced on Monday morning that Bergeron will be back next season.

The Bruins and Bergeron reached a deal early Monday morning for one year at $2.5M in salary and up to $2.5M in performance bonuses. With the deal being worth up to $5M total, the Bruins are now going to have to move someone from the active roster if they plan to take a run at bringing back the aforementioned Krejci. Technically, Bergeron will carry a $2.5M cap hit into this season, which will allow the Bruins around $2.25M to get a Krejci deal done.

Prior to Bergeron signing his deal, the Bruins were sitting on a little more than $4.7M in available cap space. If the captain hits his full ceiling for bonuses, that will put the B's approximately $300K over the cap. Fortunately for the Bruins, they won't have to move anyone right away, as they have several players on the roster who will start the season on LTIR, with at least 2 (Marchand, McAvoy) expected to miss multiple months of action.




Bergeron has spend his entire career with the Bruins after being drafted in the 2nd round (45th overall) by the Bruins back in 2003. He is recognized league-wide as one of the absolute best two-way centers in the game and has won 5 Selke Trophies in his career and won a Stanley Cup with the Bruins back in 2011.

The Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec native has played 1216 career NHL games, spanning across 18 NHL seasons, amassing 400 goals and 982 regular season points. He's also added 127 points in 167 NHL playoff games.

The breakdown of Bergeron's new deal consists of a $1.5M base salary, a $1M signing bonus and a $2.5M bonus for playing 10 or more games. Basically, it's a $5M deal.