Patrice Bergeron-Cleary (born July 24, 1985) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), all with the Boston Bruins. He served as team captain from 2021 until his retirement in 2023. Bergeron played junior hockey with the Acadie–Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for one full season before being selected 45th overall by the Bruins in the 2003 NHL entry draft. He made the immediate jump from junior to the NHL after his draft and joined the Bruins in the 2003–04 season. In international play, Bergeron competed for Canada and won gold medals at the 2004 World Championships, 2005 World Junior Championships, 2010 Winter Olympics, 2012 Spengler Cup, and 2014 Winter Olympics. Bergeron is a member of the Triple Gold Club after winning the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011. He scored two goals, including the Stanley Cup-winning goal, in game seven against the Vancouver Canucks.
Known for his two-way abilities, Bergeron is a six-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL forward with the best defensive skills, the most in NHL history. His 12 nominations are also an NHL record. He is regarded as one of the premier two-way forwards in NHL history. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2026, and is set to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Early life Patrice Bergeron-Cleary was born on July 24, 1985, in L'Ancienne-Lorette, a suburb of Quebec City, to his parents Gérard Cleary and Sylvie Bergeron. He is of Irish descent on his father’s side and French Canadian from his mother. Although his legal surname is Bergeron-Cleary, it was truncated to Bergeron for simplicity. Bergeron grew up alongside his older brother Guillaume in his hometown of L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, and was a Quebec Nordiques fan in his youth. Growing up Bergeron was mostly an A and AA player throughout his minor hockey days.
Playing career Minor hockey He played in the 1998 and 1999 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a minor ice hockey team from Sainte-Foy, Quebec City. 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 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Boston Bruins (2003–2023)
Beginnings (2003–2007) 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. His first NHL goal came versus the Los Angeles Kings on October 18, 2003, in a 4–3 Boston road victory. He would then score the overtime-winning goal in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals against the rival Montreal Canadiens on April 9, 2004.
Due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout, 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 decided to build the team around Bergeron instead of Thornton, preferring the former's on- and off-ice character.
Playing under a defensive system employed by new head coach Dave Lewis, 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.
Establishment, Stanley Cup title, two more Stanley Cup Finals, "Perfection Line" era (2007–2020) 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. Jones received a two-game suspension from the NHL. 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. On January 19, 2008, the Boston Globe reported Bergeron had been sent on 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. In March 2008, Bergeron started preliminary on-ice practice with Bruins goaltender Manny Fernandez, who was himself recovering from knee surgery. 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. In June 2008, Bergeron was reported as being symptom-free during off-season training. He participated in the Bruins' summer development camp (typically for Bruins prospects) with Fernandez, before joining the Bruins' main training camp.
He returned to action with the Bruins for the team's preseason opening game on September 22, 2008, against the Montreal Canadiens, an 8–3 victory played in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After the 2008–09 season began, on October 23, Bergeron scored his first goal since his concussion, in a 4–2 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two months later, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on December 20, 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. (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. In the first round of the 2009 playoffs, Bergeron recorded his first career fighting major in an altercation with Montreal's Josh Gorges.
In 2009–10, Bergeron scored 52 points (19 goals, 33 assists) and played in 73 games. During the 2010 playoffs, he scored four goals and added seven assists for 11 points in all 14 games as the Bruins upset the Buffalo Sabres in the first round before being defeated in seven games by the Philadelphia Flyers (despite initially having a 3–0 series lead at one point).
Halfway into the 2010–11 season, Bergeron scored his first career NHL hat-trick in a Bruins 6–0 victory over the Ottawa Senators on January 11, 2011. Bergeron took a hit from Claude Giroux on May 6, in game four of the second round in the 2011 playoffs against the Philadelphia Flyers, causing a mild concussion that kept Bergeron out of the first two games of the third round against the Tampa Bay Lightning before eventually returning to the lineup in game three to help the Bruins eventually defeat the fifth-seeded Lightning in seven games. On June 1, during game one on the Stanley Cup Final against the Presidents' Trophy-winning-Vancouver Canucks, Canucks' forward Alexandre Burrows allegedly bit Bergeron's finger during a scrum. No penalty was called and the NHL did not fine or suspend Burrows because the alleged bite was not supported by any evidence except a video of Burrows biting Bergeron's glove while his hand was still inside it and bite marks on Bergeron's finger. The Bruins lost games one, two, and five away by one goal, but won games three, four, and six at home in one sided fashions, tying the series at three games apiece. On June 15, Bergeron scored two goals in game seven of the series (including the game and series winner) against Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo in a 4–0 victory over a Canucks in the game and 4–3 victory in the series, as the Bruins captured their sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history and first since 1972 and overcoming a 3–2 series deficit in the process. Bergeron also became the 26th member of the Triple Gold Club. He is engraved on the Stanley Cup using his birth name, Patrice Bergeron-Cleary.
After the close of the 2012 playoffs, even with the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins eliminated in the first round in seven games by the seventh-seeded 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 season for the first time in his career.
After finishing second in Selke Trophy voting for the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season (only behind Chicago Blackhawks forward and captain Jonathan Toews), Bergeron turned in a heroic playoff performance in the 2013 playoffs which included the tying- and game-winning goals against the fifth-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in game seven of Round 1, and the overtime winner in game three of the Eastern Conference Final against the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins. Earlier, in the third round series against the Penguins in game one on June 1, 2013, he and Evgeni Malkin fought 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 also became renowned in the hockey world for displaying his toughness when, in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Chicago Blackhawks where the Bruins lost in six games, he played through a punctured lung, separated shoulder, a broken rib and a broken nose.
The Bruins re-signed Bergeron to an eight-year, $52 million ($6.5 million per year) contract extension on July 12, 2013. 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 as the regular season champions. 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.
Towards the end of the 2014–15 season, on February 23, 2015, in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Bergeron scored his 200th career goal on Hawks' goaltender Corey Crawford as the Bruins would clinch a 6–2 victory in the game. Bergeron, who has played his entire NHL career as a member of the Bruins since they drafted him in 2003 in the second round, became the 17th player in franchise history to score 200 or more career goals for the club. Despite the Bruins missing the 2015 playoffs by just two points in the league standings, Bergeron was awarded the Selke Trophy for the second straight season and third time altogether after being named a finalist for the fourth consecutive season and time in his career.
Despite the Bruins narrowly missing the playoffs again by having missed by just three points, Bergeron was named a finalist for the Selke Trophy for the fifth consecutive year after recording 32 goals, 36 assists and 68 points although the Selke Trophy would get awarded Los Angeles Kings forward Anže Kopitar.