Bergeron tied his NHL career high with 32 goals and set a new high with 79 points in 65 games last season. The 34-year-old then had 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) in 24 Stanley Cup Playoff games to help the Bruins advance to the Cup Final. Bergeron, entering his 16th NHL season, was eighth in the NHL in face-off winning percentage among those with at least 750 draws last season (56.6 percent). A four-time Selke Trophy winner, he has been a finalist for the award eight times, including last season, when he had seven shorthanded points (tied for third in NHL) and four shorthanded goals (tied for fourth).
"His game is so fundamentally sound," Lawton said. "It's one thing to be able to learn the game offensively -- that comes to a lot of players because that's all they ever work on -- but he is money in the [face-off circle], he has been forever. That's why whatever line he plays on, they drive play consistently. ... He thinks the game equally as strong on the defensive side of the puck, and that's really, for me, what separates this guy."