Patrice Bergeron

Minor hockey

Bergeron grew up in his hometown of L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, and was mostly an A and AA player throughout his minor hockey days. He was drafted in the fifth round of the 2001 QMJHL Draft out of AAA Bantam hockey with the Sainte-Foy Gouverneurs. The following year, he played A hockey for the Séminaire St-François Blizzard before reporting to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL.

Boston Bruins

Bergeron was drafted 45th overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins. During his rookie season, he was selected for the NHL YoungStars Game in Minnesota as part of the 2004 All-Star weekend. He finished his rookie season with 39 points in 71 games.^[10] Due to the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, Bergeron played for Boston's minor league affiliate, the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League (AHL), tallying 61 points in 68 games.

As the NHL resumed the following season, Bergeron led the Bruins with a career-high 31 goals and 73 points. He played the majority of the season with linemates Brad Boyes and newcomer Marco Sturm, who had been acquired in a trade that sent captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in November 2005. Then Bruins general manager Mike O'Connell recalled in a June 2011 interview that the organization had made a decision to build the team around Bergeron instead of Thornton, preferring the former's on- and off-ice character.^[11] At the end of the year, Bergeron was selected by the Bruins to receive the team's 7th Player Award as the player most deemed to have exceeded expectations. Playing under a defensive system employed by new head coach Dave Lewis,^[12] he recorded his second consecutive 70-point campaign in 2006–07 with 22 goals and 48 assists. He again played alongside Sturm and Boyes until the latter was traded late in the season. Bergeron was hampered the majority of the season by a nagging shoulder injury.

After recording three goals and four assists in the first ten games of the 2007–08 season, Bergeron suffered a season-ending head injury during a game on October 27, 2007. Checked from behind by Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Randy Jones, Bergeron hit his head on the end-boards, knocking him unconscious. He lay motionless on the ice for several minutes before being wheeled off on a stretcher and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken nose and a grade-three concussion.^[10] Jones received a two-game suspension from the NHL.^[13] Bergeron made his first public statements regarding the injury on November 8, saying he would not take any legal action and that Jones had tried to contact him to apologize.^[14]

On January 19, 2008, the Boston Globe reported Bergeron had been sent on a vacation by then Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli and that he would likely sit out for the remainder of the season as his recovery had regressed.^[15] In March 2008, Bergeron started preliminary on-ice practice with Bruins goaltender Manny Fernandez, who was himself recovering from knee surgery.^[16] He steadily progressed into full-contact practices in early-April, aiming for a playoff return against the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round, however he was held back by team doctors.^[17] In June 2008, Bergeron was reported as being symptom-free during off-season training.^[18] He participated in the Bruins' summer development camp (typically for Bruins prospects) with Fernandez,^[19] before joining the Bruins' main training camp.^[20] He returned to action with the Bruins for the team's pre-season opening game on September 22, 2008, against the Montreal Canadiens, an 8–3 victory played in Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[21]

After the 2008–09 season began, Bergeron scored his first goal since his concussion on October 23, 2008, in a 4–2 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.^[22] Two months later, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on December 20, 2008, Bergeron collided with opposing defenceman (and future Bruin) Dennis Seidenberg, suffering another concussion. He lay face down on the ice while being attended to by team trainers and eventually left the ice under his own power. He was released from the hospital the day after the collision and placed on injured reserve.^[23] (Seidenberg and Bergeron later became teammates on the Bruins after a trade for Byron Bitz to the Florida Panthers in 2010 to acquire Seidenberg.) Bergeron returned after being sidelined for one month and completed the season with 39 points in 64 games.^[10] In the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs, Bergeron recorded his first career fighting major in an altercation with Montreal's Josh Gorges.

Bergeron with the Boston Bruins in March 2010 during the 2009-10 NHL season.

In 2009–10, Bergeron scored 52 points while playing on a line with winger Mark Recchi. During the 2010 playoffs, he scored 4 goals and added 7 assists for 11 points in 14 games. The following season, Bergeron scored his first career NHL hat-trick in a Bruins victory over the Ottawa Senators on January 11, 2011.^[24] Bergeron was named the NHL's First Star of the Month and was twice named First Star of the Week in January 2011. Bergeron has been in two post-season fights in his entire NHL career, on April 18, 2009, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals. Josh Gorges reached out and hit Bergeron in the jaw, and Bergeron retaliated by pummelling Gorges with two huge left punches. This was a seen as a huge motivator for the series. The second came on June 1, 2013, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and Evgeni Malkin began squaring off at centre ice, leading to Malkin knocking off Bergeron's helmet before they both threw off their gloves to fight. The two continued to throw blows even while referees attempted to separate them.

Bergeron in all black Bruins third jersey in 2011

Bergeron was once again concussed after a hit from Claude Giroux on May 6, 2011, in Game 4 of the second round in the 2011 playoffs against Philadelphia. It is believed to be a mild concussion that kept him out of the beginning of the third round of the playoffs. On June 1, 2011, with the Boston Bruins, the Vancouver Canucks' Alexandre Burrows allegedly bit Bergeron's finger. No penalty was called and the NHL did not fine or suspend Burrows because the alleged bite was not supported by any evidence except video of Burrows biting Bergeron's glove while his hand was still inside it and bite marks on Bergeron's finger.

Bergeron became the 26th member of the Triple Gold Club on June 15, 2011, with the Bruins when they won the team's sixth Stanley Cup. He scored two goals in Game 7 of the series, including the game (and series) winner. On the Stanley Cup, Bergeron is listed by his birth name, Patrice Bergeron-Cleary. After the close of the 2012 NHL playoffs, even with the Bruins team eliminated in the first round by the Washington Capitals, Bergeron's constant defensive efforts on the ice earned him the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward for the 2011–12 NHL season.^[25]

After finishing second in Selke Trophy voting for the lockout-shortened 2013 season, Bergeron turned in a heroic playoff performance which included the tying and game winning goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of Round 1, and the overtime winner in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bergeron also became renowned in the hockey world for displaying his toughness when, in the Stanley Cup Finals, he played through a punctured lung, separated shoulder, broken rib and a broken nose.^[10]

Bergeron during the 2013-14 season.

The Bruins re-signed Bergeron to an eight-year, $52 million ($6.5 million per year) contract extension on July 12, 2013.^[26] In the following 2013–14 season, Bergeron reached the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career, achieving a total of 30 goals and 32 assists, and was a major factor as the Bruins won the Presidents' Trophy. For his performance in the regular season, Bergeron was awarded his second career Frank J. Selke Trophy, as well as the NHL Foundation Player Award. He was named as the cover athlete for the NHL 15 video game in the same ceremony.

As Bergeron continued play with the Bruins for the 2014–15 season, on February 23, 2015, he scored his 200th career goal as the Bruins defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 6–2. Bergeron, who has played his entire NHL career as a member of the Bruins since they drafted him in 2003, became the 17th player in franchise history to score 200 or more career goals for the club.^[27]

Bergeron's play during the 2016–17 season was hampered by a sports hernia that occurred at some time early in the season, but which was only revealed on April 25, 2017.^[28] Bergeron's sports hernia was operated on May 8, 2017, and he was expected to be ready for the Bruins' training camp before the 2017–18 season began.^[29] Near the halfway point of the 2017–18 season, on January 6, 2018, in a 7–1 home win for the Bruins over the Carolina Hurricanes, Bergeron scored four goals, the "concluding" threesome of which all occurred with no one else from either team scoring in-between them, comprising Bergeron's first-ever natural hat trick in his NHL professional career, bringing his scoring-point total (goals/assists combined) to 702 in his NHL playing career.^[30][31] Five games later, on January 18, Bergeron recorded the third hat-trick of his career (and second of the season) in a 5–2 win over the New York Islanders.^[32] After blocking an opposition shot with his right foot on February 24 against the hosting Toronto Maple Leafs, Bergeron discovered two days later he had broken a bone in his foot and would remain out of action for two weeks pending further evaluation of his foot fracture.^[33] By March 19, Bergeron had been able to start practicing his skating with the team.^[34] Bergeron was cleared to play in the Bruins road game against the Minnesota Wild on March 25, recording assists on each of the goals scored in the Bruins' 2–1 overtime win.^[35]

Regular season and playoffs

International

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2004	Canada	WC			9	1	0	1	4
2005	Canada	WJC			6	5	8	13	6
2006	Canada	WC	4th		9	6	8	14	2
2010	Canada	Oly			7	0	1	1	2
2012	Canada	SC			4	1	4	5	4
2014	Canada	Oly			6	0	2	2	4
2016	Canada	WCH			6	4	3	7	2
Junior totals					6	5	8	13	6
Senior totals					41	12	18	30	18

Records

• First and only player in history to win the IIHF World Championships before the IIHF World U20 Championship
• 4 Frank J. Selke Trophies most in NHL history tied with Bob Gainey