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After a first-round playoff loss to the Carolina Hurricane, these three Boston Bruins players won’t be back next season.
The Boston Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2019, losing in seven games to the St. Louis Blues. Since then, albeit in three seasons somehow impacted by COVID-19, they’ve bowed out of the playoffs in the second, second and first round respectively.
In what would qualify as the post-mortem with the media, Bruins president Cam Neely sounded uncertain about the future of head coach Bruce Cassidy, suggesting a change in the way the team plays is needed. Cassidy has one season left on his contract, and with several good options out there (Barry Trotz, Peter DeBoer, etc.) the questions about his status are ripe and easy.
But this is about the players. With or without a change behind the bench, the Bruins could look very different in spot on the ice next season. There’s a decent list of players entering the final year of their contract in 2022-23, if nothing else. Some guys might not fit with a system a new coach could bring with him, if things get there, or if Cassidy is pushed to change things up that would drive some personnel changes too.
Here are three Boston Bruins players who won’t be back next season, regardless of the coaching circumstance.
3 Boston Bruins players who won’t be back next season: Patrice Bergeron
In his 18th NHL season, Bergeron remained a productive player in the regular season (65 points in 73 games) and the playoffs (seven points in seven games) this year. But he’s also going to turn 37 on July 24, and he’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent. How many years, and at what rate, should the Bruins be willing to commit to him?
As the Bruins left the ice after the Game 7 loss to Carolina, Bergeron hugged all of his teammates.
The classiest, most underrated Boston athlete of my generation. If anyone deserved one more, it was Patrice Bergeron. Hope this wasn’t it for 37, but if it was, it was an incredible run. https://t.co/Wbp3qcHFQX
— Ryan Spagnoli (@Ryan_Spags) May 14, 2022
That fueled automatic retirement speculation, though he’s not rushing that decision and the team won’t rush him either. Neely made it clear, not that he had to, that the four-time Selke Award winner (and a finalist this year yet again) is wanted back in Boston.
Obviously, the year that he had, I hope that he feels good about his game still because he had a pretty damn good year,” . “So hopefully, he’s mentally prepared to have another one. You’ve got to give him some time to digest all that and talk with his family about it, but we have decisions to make coming up as well.
I think it would be challenging to have the year that we had without a Bergeron,” he added. “It’s tough to find a Bergeron. Hopefully, he does come back but if he doesn’t, we’ve got to go to work.”
It’s hard to envision Bergeron in another uniform, as he’s been a Bruin his entire career. But it seems he has plenty left. If he doesn’t want to retire while the Bruins also don’t offer him a new deal that’s to his liking, after he likely gives them top priority, he will have suitors if he wants to entertain them.
Bergeron has dismissed the idea he’d sign with the Montreal Canadiens, where his former agent is now the general manager. But a “Bruins or no one” idea could always change, and it might wind up being no one.
