Bruins’s target to replace Patrice Bergeron revealed

Last week, veteran forward Patrice Bergeron announced that he would be taking time to evaluate his future with his family, figuring out whether he might have the desire to come back for his 19th NHL season, all of them with the Boston Bruins.

Many insiders expect the 36-year-old to announce his retirement this summer. The decision will definitely impact the Bruins moving forward: I don’t think Bergeron can be replaced. Ever.

His departure will leave a massive hole in the Bruins’ center-ice depth chart, and some rumours point to Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele as a solution.

Scheifele has proven for seasons that he is an elite offensive talent: he put up 29 goals and 70 points in just 67 games this season, and that’s one of his least productive ones. It’s been mentioned that a change of scenery would greatly benefit him and could welcome a trade to Boston.

Scheifele’s deal holds modified no-trade clause, but he has expressed that it might be time to move from the Jets. The trade is not expected to be cheap, but with two years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of just $6.125 million, it is certainly worth looking into for general manager Don Sweeney.

It comes as an interesting option for the Bruins, who some say are still hoping for David Krejci’s return. The long-time Bruin chose to return and play the 2021-22 season in his home country of Czech Republic. There is now chatter that he could return to the NHL next season and we all feel he would do so with Boston, which whom he played nearly1000 games.

“David Pastrnak, along with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, have travelled over to the World Championships and will play,” GM Sweeney said. “Knowing how close they are, I’m sure there will be a conversation that maybe filters back to me. I certainly kept in touch with David and his camp throughout the year. He had hard decisions to make in terms of the promise he had made to his family overall. Just ultimately decided to stay and see it through. I’m sure at some point in time if he decides to return, then hopefully I get a call and we can have a conversation. But I have not gone down that path for several months.”

Joe Haggerty of Boston Hockey Now brought up the point that a Krejci return may be enough to convince Bergeron to re-sign as well, but that remains to be seen.

We are all awaiting Bergeron’s decision, and that includes Scheifele in Winnipeg.