The St. Louis Blues and forward Patrik Berglund have agreed on a 5 year extension. The contract is worth $19.25 million per season, with an annual cap hit of $3.85 million, which is a small raise from his current $3.7 million cap hit. The contract is said to include a partial no-trade clause as well.
The team confirmed the extension on their website this afternoon:
The Blues have agreed to terms on a new five-year, $19.25 million contract extension with center Patrik Berglund.
Berglund’s previous three-year deal was set to expire at the end of the season. If left unsigned, he would have become an unrestricted free agent.
Berglund has played in 60 games this season and ranks second on the team in goals (17) and is third in game-winning goals (3). He has netted 16 of those goals in his last 30 games.
Berglund, 28, was drafted by the Blues 26th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Berglund played in Sweden after being drafted, before joining the Blues for the 2008-09 season. Berglund scored 21 goals in his rookie season, which led to him finishing in the top 10 of Calder Trophy voting for the NHL’s top rookie.
Berglund has been a consistent top goal scorer for the Blues, but injuries have kept him from becoming one of the leagues elite snipers. But new head coach Mike Yeo seems very happy with Berglund.
Yeo had this to say about Berglund last week, according to Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Dispatch:
“I’ve loved what Bergy has brought to the table,” coach Mike Yeo said last week. “I feel between him and I that we’ve got something good going on here, and I think it started before I became the head coach. He’s got a real strong sense of what he is as a player, what he needs to do, what he needs to bring night after night, and when he does those things, he adds an awful lot to our group.
“I think it’s just his identity as a player, knowing the things he needs to do to be successful. I would look at him and say that it’s pretty simple to picture what his best games look like. When you think about Bergy being physical, when you think about him controlling pucks in the offensive zone, getting to the net, these are things that make him extremely difficult to defend and I think he’s doing that very consistently right now.”
While he has not reached his full potential, Berglund now comes at a cheap price for a productive goal scorer. He is having a very productive season under Yeo, on pace to match his career high in goals,22, this season.
