Boston Bruins All-Time Great Patrice Bergeron Retires After 19 Seasons

BOSTON — A Boston Bruins legend, Stanley Cup champion and one of the most respected players in professional hockey is leaving the Garden ice for good as a professional player with Patrice Bergeron's retirement announcement after 19 seasons on Tuesday.

Bergeron won the Selke Award as the best defensive forward in the NHL six times — including this past season — and helped lead the Bruins to the Stanley Cup championship in 2011. He announced the retirement ina letter to fans on the Bruins website published at about 10 a.m. Tuesday morning.

"For the last 20 years I have been able to live my dream every day," he wrote. "I have had the honor of playing in front of the best fans in the world wearing the Bruins uniform and representing my country at the highest levels of international play. I have given the game everything that I have physically and emotionally, and the game has given me back more than I
could have ever imagined.

"It is with a full heart and a lot of gratitude that today I am announcing my retirement as a professional hockey player."

Bergeron helped lead the Bruins to the Cup title in 2011, to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final in 2013 and to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final in 2019. He contemplated retirement after the 2021-22 season, but returned last year and was part of a Bruins team that compiled the greatest regular season record in NHL history before being upset in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

He finishes his career with 1,294 games played, 427 goals, 613 assists and 1,040 points. He was named Bruins captain following Zdeno Chara's departure after the 2019 season. He also won two gold medals with the Canadian national hockey team.

He struggled with injuries late last season and missed the first four games of the NHL playoffs before returning for the final three.

"As hard as it is to write, I also write it knowing how blessed and lucky I feel to have had the career that I have had, and that I have the opportunity to leave the game I love on my terms," he said in his farewell letter. "It wasn't a decision that I came to lightly. But after listening to my body, and talking with my family, I know in my heart that this is the right time to step away from playing the game I love."

A Quebec native, the 38-year-old Bergeron was Boston's second-round pick as a 19-year-old in the 2003 NHL Draft.

"The amazing people of New England welcomed a young French Canadian who didn't speak great English and you treated me like one of your own," he said. "I can't imagine representing a better community or more passionate fan base than the Boston Bruins. Your passion, your dedication and your kindness towards me and my family will never be forgotten. Please know that every time I took the ice I tried to compete for you the right way, and off the ice, I tried the best that I could to give back to the community that supported me.

"The connections and friends that my family and I have made here are unquantifiable. Boston is, and will forever be, a special place for me and my family."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)