At long last, the Bruins finally confirmed the news that we all knew was sure to be coming for months now: hours apart this morning, their longtime centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci both signed bargain one-year deals to return to Boston for what has to be a final attempt to win another elusive Stanley Cup with the black and gold. The timing of it all is one of the most interesting aspects of this expected story since Bergy took forever to thankfully decide to avoid retirement for another season while Krej apparently had more than enough of his homeland (Czech Republic) in one forgettable campaign back there. You have to wonder how much of a factor Jim Montgomery being the new head coach of the B's these days rather than that meanie Bruce Cassidy had to do with it all.
While it is way too easy to make fun of these moves by the Bruins on the surface, you cannot say that GM Don Sweeney has left them with many better options if they do not want to commit to a full scale rebuild. Sadly, this is what happens when you do not draft and develop well for years on end, you are forced to cling to the glory days from way back when. To their credit, Bergeron and Krejci are each taking very team friendly contracts even by hockey players' normally selfless standards. Bruins captain Patrice will make $2.5 million plus another $2.5 million in (quite attainable) performance-based incentives. David gets $1 million plus an additional $2 million in performance-based incentives. It says something about the character, professionalism, leadership and competitiveness of these guys that they both chose to play another season with the only NHL club that they have ever known rather than spend much more time with their families and friends.
After last season, we still have a good feel for what the 37-year-old Bergeron has left in the tank because he had a real nice 2021-2022 with 25 goals, 40 assists and plus-16 in 73 regular season games followed by seven points (3 goals, 4 assists) in their seven game, first round exit vs. Carolina. Krejci is a year younger than Bergy and a bit more of a wild card since the Czechia League is a far cry from the overall quality of the NHL, sorry Jaromir Jagr! Therefore, his numbers from good old HC Olomouc are completely irrelevant. When we last saw him stateside, David had 44 points (8 goals, 36 assists) in 51 regular season games in the pandemic shortened 2020-21 season then nine points (2 goals, 7 assists) in 11 playoff games. Bergeron is probably going to end up in the Hall of Fame and Krejci has been a great Bruin-particularly in the postseason-so despite their ages, Boston is a much better team today than they were yesterday when we were not sure (yeah right!) that they would be back in the B's lineup starting next month when training camp and the preseason begin.
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