Patrice Bergeron Reacts to Being Elected to Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2026

BOSTON –– It has been a busy week for Patrice Bergeron.

Thursday morning was welcomed with an 8:37 a.m. announcement from the Boston Bruins that their former captain’s No. 37 would be retired to the TD Garden rafters this upcoming season.​

Four days and a bevy of congratulatory texts later, Bergeron’s phone would buzz again. He was back standing in the sun room at his house, slowly pacing and rubbing his hands together.

Bergeron’s iPhone sat face up on the table and blinked on with an incoming call.

“Hello?” he said.

“Is this Patrice?” the voice on the other end asked.

“Yes, that’s me,” Bergeron responded, with a slight shake in his voice.

Mike Gartner, the Chair of the Board of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Ron Francis, the Chair of the Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee, then revealed themselves.

“Welcome to the Hall,” Francis said. “Congratulations.”

It was official. Bergeron had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2026 in the Player Category. He will be inducted on Monday, November 9 during the celebration in Toronto.

“I didn’t really see it ring at first. But when I saw the 416, I kind of realized what was happening. Pretty surreal. Lots of emotion,” Bergeron said. “Reflect a little bit on teammates and coaches and people who helped you along the way, and family and the organization. Kind of speechless right now.”

Most players will insist they didn’t see the honor coming. Bergeron is one you actually believe. His humility is a cornerstone of who he is as a person and a player. It carried him through his 19-season NHL career (2003-23), all of which he spent sporting the Spoked-B. Bergeron was not even aware that the calls would be happening on Monday until someone notified him. Then it started to become real.

“It is funny because in the morning here, it’s so chaotic with the four kids that I didn’t really think about it. Just a normal day getting the kids ready, and off they went. Went for a workout this morning. It was more when I left, and I was coming back here, I knew that the window was around noon time to 1 p.m. — I was maybe a little bit more anxious in a way just not knowing what was going to happen,” Bergeron said. “It has been a pretty amazing week, I guess.”

Far before the accolades and titles, the center was a second-round pick (45th overall) for the Bruins in 2003, and made his NHL debut that October. It was not yet obvious the legend Bergeron would become, but it did not take long for the Bruins faithful to fall in love with the two-way, relentless and courageous leader.

Bergeron logged a total of 1,294 career games, recording 427 goals and 613 assists for 1,040 points, which ranks third in franchise history in games played, goals and points. He leads all Bruins with 15,182 faceoff wins and has a career 57.9 faceoff win percentage, sitting third all-time in NHL history in faceoff wins.

The L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec native was part of the core that willed the B’s to the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship; Bergeron scored twice in Game 7 against the Vancouver Canucks after coming back from down 2-0 and 3-2 in the final series. He and Zdeno Chara – who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2025 – share the NHL record for most Game 7 appearances (14).

Bergeron skated in the second-most career playoff games (170) in franchise history. His 128 postseason points (50 goals, 78 assists) are tied for third-most of all Bruins.

​Those are just a handful of the statistics – paired with who he is as a human – that made Bergeron’s election feel so obvious to perhaps everyone but him.

“It means a lot. It is very humbling to have now my name amongst legends and greats of the game, people who left a footprint on the game itself,” Bergeron said. “It is still hard for me to really see myself there and believe it. But I guess I will have a few months to realize it and appreciate it.”

It was not just in Boston where Bergeron was held in the highest esteem – it was league-wide. He won the Selke Trophy a record six times (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2022, 2023) and was nominated for the award in 12 consecutive seasons, the longest streak in NHL history. Bergeron wore the ‘C’ for the Bruins for his final three years (2021-23), and earned the Mark Messier Leadership Award for his exemplary leadership on and off the ice in 2020-21. He was previously awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy following the 2012-13 season for his commitment to the Boston community.

The forward also took pride in wearing the red maple leaf across his chest for Team Canada. Bergeron is a member of the Triple Gold Club, winning Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014, IIHF World Championship gold in 2004 and the Stanley Cup in 2011. He was also a gold-medalist at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Championship, 2012 Spengler Cup and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

It has been over 20 years since Bergeron broke onto the scene as the leading scorer and MVP of the 2005 World Juniors before turning heads in the NHL. At that time, he was just trying to make it. Now, he is at the top of it all.

“I don’t think I would really believe it. If you look back even 10 years ago, you’re so in the moment, you’re just trying to improve and get better and push for yourself and your teammates to accomplish great things. You don’t really reflect or think about what’s next and if one day you will be there. I never really believed I had a case for it. It is definitely overwhelming,” Bergeron said. “Definitely special and something I’m very grateful for.”

There will be a lot of speech writing in Bergeron’s future, and for good reason. How is he feeling about that off-ice skill set?

“We’re going to have to work on it, and we’ll see how it goes,” Bergeron said with a smile. “Obviously, this is a special moment. There are a lot of people to thank for this that deserve the recognition. But then you don’t have that much time, so I’ll make sure to do that one on one and share that with everyone who has helped me along the way.”