We’re now two days into NHL free agency and Patrice Bergeron has still not officially announced that he’s playing next season, much less finalized a contract.
The 36-year-old center is certainly still acting like the Bruins’ captain, though. The latest proof of that came Thursday afternoon when Pavel Zacha, whom the B’s acquired for Erik Haula on Wednesday, met with the Boston media for the first time.
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Zacha revealed that Bergeron was one of the first Bruins to call him after the trade, and it certainly sounds like their conversation was a teammate-to-teammate one.
“It was great,” Zacha said of the phone call. “Growing up, being a centerman too, he’s been a guy I was always looking up to. Really great two-way center. Getting a call from him and how nice he was and welcoming and telling me that he’s gonna meet me in camp and he’s excited to talk to me and stuff -- that’s something from a captain and a leader, to here that coming in is great. I’m just excited to meet him in person and talk to him.”
“Gonna meet me in camp.” Well, that certainly sounds like Bergeron plans on being at training camp, and presumably as a player, not a coach or spectator.
It’s the latest in a series of Bergeron phone calls and texts we’ve heard about over the past week. Boston’s second-round pick in last week’s draft, Matthew Poitras, said Bergeron texted him shortly after he was picked. New head coach Jim Montgomery said in his introductory press conference on Monday that Bergeron was one of his first phone calls after getting hired.
Of course, this all lines up with everything else we’re hearing about Bergeron. All signs continue to point to him returning, and general manager Don Sweeney said on Wednesday that they were “in a really good place” and that the two sides were “working out the details of his contract.”
So, while we continue to await Bergeron’s final word, his actions look like those of someone who very much remains captain of the Bruins.
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