Patrice Bergeron will be back for 2022-2023, signs a one-year contract

At long last, the Bruins have crossed a major item off of the off-season to-do list: the team announced this morning that they’ve signed Patrice Bergeron to a one-year contract.

As many expected, the contract required a little bit of creative accounting to make it work for the salary cap: the deal is worth $2.5 million in salary, plus an additional $2.5 million in performance bonuses.

The performance bonus is, predictably, laughably easy to reach, making this essentially a $5 million guaranteed contract:

The benefit for the Bruins, of course, is that performance bonuses can be carried over to the 2023-2024 cap year if needed.

I think it’s fair to say that Bergeron did the team a bit of a favor here too, as he clearly didn’t hold out for big money.

In any case, the news brings a major sigh of relief for the team and its fans, as that 1C role is capably filled for at least one more season.

There were rumors circulating earlier this summer that some of the Bruins’ other unfinished business, including a potential David Krejci return and a new contract for David Pastrnak, would wait until after Bergeron’s situation was sorted, so it’ll be interesting to see if any other dominoes fall in the coming days.

Anyways, good news...Bergeron is back, and on a deal that doesn’t handcuff the team.

Happy Monday!