Boston Bruins Get A Boost With Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci Set To Return

Just like that, the Boston Bruins’ window to contend for a championship has snapped back open.

The Bruins dominated the NHL headlines with three announcements earlier this week. Captain Patrice Bergeron, at 37, signed a new contract to return for one more year. Center David Krejci, 36, also signed for one year after playing in his native Czechia in the 2021-22 season. And general manager Don Sweeney avoided the scheduled August 11 salary arbitration hearing with newly acquired Pavel Zacha, coming to terms with the 25-year-old on a one-year contract.

It was a flurry of activity after the Bruins have had a relatively quiet summer. Other than trading for Zacha by sending veteran center Erik Haula to the New Jersey Devils, most of Boston’s news had been injury related.

Last season’s leading scorer, Brad Marchand, is expected to be sidelined until late November after having undergone surgery on both his hips in late May. The timeline is expected to be similar for top defenseman Charlie McAvoy following June shoulder surgery, and a shoulder procedure will also keep blueliner Matt Grzelcyk out of the lineup until about November.

Having Bergeron and Krejci back in the fold should help enormously as the Bruins work to weather those absences through the early part of the season.

Bergeron is a life-long Bruin, with 1,216 career games and 982 points on his resume. He also has 127 points in 167 playoff games, and scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for Boston in the 2011 playoffs. He’s regarded as one of the best two-way forwards in NHL history, won his record-setting fifth Frank J. Selke Trophy last June, and is widely respected for his dignified leadership style.

CapFriendly shows that Bergeron has signed contracts worth just over $100 million in his 18-years-and-counting NHL career. But he has never had a cap hit higher than $6.875 million in a season and has been praised for taking team-friendly deals that allow management to build a strong roster around him and the team’s other stars, while staying within the salary cap.

Bergeron’s new contract is also reasonable, but juicier than it appears at first glance. He’ll get $2.5 million guaranteed, made up of a $1 million signing bonus and a $1.5 million base salary. But because Bergeron is over 35, he is also eligible for performance bonuses. In his case, he’ll get an additional $2.5 million for playing in 10 games next season — a low bar to clear, but one which will allow the Bruins to defer that bonus payout to the 2023-24 books if there isn’t sufficient open cap space to cover it at the end of this year.

“I’m not going to say that we’re not well paid,” Bergeron told the media on a Zoom call on Monday. “We are, extremely, and beyond what I dreamed of as far as salary goes.

“But that being said, I think leaving a few (dollars) on the table to make sure you’re a competitive team and you’re a good team and that it carries on for years — I think that, to me, makes a big difference and and I think that’s how we want to play the game.”

Bergeron’s new contract is the first to be negotiated by his new agent, Philippe Lecavalier. He had previously been represented by Kent Hughes, who left the agent business in January to become general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.

Though the announcement came Monday, Bergeron told the media that his reps had agreed to terms with the Bruins well before the opening of free agency on July 13.

“I let Sweens (general manager Don Sweeney) know like I told them I would,” he said, “so that they could make whatever moves they wanted to make and so that they could plan ahead and work on things that they had to work on.”

Krejci has also known for awhile that he wanted to ship back to Boston after playing last season for his hometown squad, HC Olomouc, in his native Czech Republic. He also suited up for Czechia at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and won bronze in May at the 2022 IIHF World Championship. In Finland, he finished as one of the tournament’s top scorers with 12 points in 10 games, and was reunited with his Bruins teammate and countryman, David Pastrnak.

“Those two tournaments showed me that I can still play at high level and be a difference maker,” Krejci said in a Zoom call on Tuesday. “So that was something I was thinking about when when I was thinking about coming back to NHL.”

When Boston coach Bruce Cassidy was fired in early June, rumors swirled that players had been unhappy with his hard-driving approach. On Tuesday, Krejci threw cold water on the notion that the fact that Cassidy has now been replaced by Jim Montgomery was a factor in his decision to return.

“That would be a good story if I would say yes,” he said. “But my decision was made before they hired the new coach. So the firing of Butchy has nothing to do with my decision, coming back.”

Krejci has earned just over $70 million in his 15 years in the NHL. His previous contract, which expired in 2021, carried a cap hit of $7.25 million per season.

Like Bergeron, his new deal has a bonus component which can be pushed to next year’s salary-cap count if necessary. According to CapFriendly, the base salary is $1 million, but the contract’s value can go as high as $3 million. He’ll get $1 million for 10 games played, another $500,000 for 20 games, and a final $500,000 if the Bruins return to the playoffs next spring.

By keeping the base salaries for Bergeron and Krejci low, Sweeney was able to agree to terms with Pavel Zacha on a one-year deal with a cap hit of $3.5 million. Drafted sixth overall by the Devils in 2015, Zacha has a big 6’3” body and can play center or wing, but has not yet lived up to his potential. He has never scored 20 goals in a season, and hit a career high last year with a relatively modest 36 points.

Now reunited with his old Devils teammate, Taylor Hall, Zacha said Hall sees a great opportunity for him to unlock that latent potential with the Bruins.

“(Hall) was like, ‘Man, you’re really in a good spot, with a good team with great players around you, so it’s going to be a fun season.’ That’s what he said to me that got me really excited.”

Also hailing from Czechia, Zacha is looking forward to playing alongside a pair of superstars from his home country in Krejci and Pastrnak, as well as fellow Czechs Jakub Zboril and Tomas Nosek.

“I’m really excited that (Krejci) decided to come back and play here,” he said. “Having five Czech players on the team doesn’t happen that often. So it’s exciting for me and, I think, everyone coming back.”

This will be a new experience for Zacha.

“I’ve never played with Czech players on the team in six years playing (in New Jersey),” he said. “So it’s going to be nice to have your own language a little bit — not in the locker room, but outside — and just to talk. And if you need some help, you have some veterans or some all-star players like Pasta and Krejci on the team, too. So, if I have any questions, I can ask.”

Monday’s announcements wrap up Sweeney’s immediate business heading into the new season, but one other important bit of work remains. Pastrnak, 26, is now one year ahead of potential unrestricted free agency. With 504 points in 510 career games since he came into the NHL as an 18-year-old in 2014, Pastrnak has been one of the NHL’s most reliable producers over the last eight seasons. His 240 goals rank him ninth overall in the league over that time.

With no contract extension yet in place, there’s concern among the fanbase that Pastrnak could choose to test free agency next summer. A strong season and long playoff run, especially with fellow countrymen like Krejci and Zacha in the fold, might be just the ticket to help convince him to stick around.