It’s been a pretty good start to the summer for Patrice Bergeron.
Just a few days after the Bruins announced that they’ll be retiring his #37 this season, Bergeron learned today that he has been elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
This year was the first year Bergeron was eligible for induction, and it’s no real surprise that he got the call the first time around.
Bergeron will officially be inducted into the HHOF in this year’s induction ceremony on November 9.
The Leafs usually have a Hockey Hall
of Fame Game around the induction too…might be a nice time for the Bruins to visit town.
From an NHL news release, Bergeron had this to say:
“This honour is the pinnacle of my career and represents the coaches and players that I went to battle with. It’s a surreal honour and I’m thankful that hockey has given so much to me and my family.”
Joining Bergeron in the 2026 class are:
- Brian Burke (in the Builder Category)
- Cindy Curley, a Massachusetts native who starred at Providence College and with the U.S. Women’s National Team
- Pekka Rinne
- Carey Price
- Keith Tkachuk
It’s cool to see Bergeron go into the Hall with two other stars of his era in Price and Rinne, the former of whom had plenty of great match-ups with the Bruins teams of Bergeron’s prime years.
Tkachuk is the outlier here in that he comes from a different era of the NHL, but he finally earned enough votes this year to get himself in.
(Maybe Brady can demand to be included in the HHOF too.)
Looking at the stats that got Rinne elected as a Hall of Famer, I can’t help but wonder if he’ll one day be joined by a fellow Finnish goalie who spent his whole career with the Bruins.
Rinne has around 60 more career wins than Tuukka Rask, though he also started 122 more games than Rask.
Other than that, their career numbers are pretty similar. Rask has a slightly better save percentage and GAA, while Rinne had more shutouts.
Rask had better playoff stats than Rinne as well, while each of them won a single Vezina Trophy and were in the top-ten finalists five times.
Anyways, we can argue about that another day.
Congrats to Patrice Bergeron, who is already in the IIHF Hall of Fame and in the Hall of Fame of My Heart!
