"BOSTON, MA - Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has signed forward David Krejci to a multi-year contract extension. Per club policy, terms of the deal will not be disclosed. Chiarelli and Krejci will be available to the media via conference call on Wednesday, June 3.
Krejci established a career high in games played, goals, assists and points this season with 22-51-73 totals in 82 games. His 51 assists ranked him second on the team behind Marc Savard, and he led the NHL with a plus/minus rating of +37. In 2009, Krejci also received the Bruins Seventh Player Award, given to the player who performs above and beyond expectations.
In his three-year NHL career, Krejci has recorded 28-72-100 totals in 144 regular season games. He appeared in all 11 playoff games for the Bruins this season contributing two goals and six assists." -Official Bruins Press Release
Hub Hockey: So even though the deal was officially announced by the team on Tuesday, the terms have yet to be disclosed. But there has been some pretty creditable speculation going around that the 3-year deal will consist of $3.5-million during the 2009-2010 season, $3.75 during the 2010-2011 season and $4 million during the 2011-2012 season.
This is a huge re-signing by the Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli. Going into the offseason there has been much debate around the re-signing and status of both young stars Krejci and Phil Kessel. Anyone can sit here and debate on which is the more valuable piece to the B's puzzle so I will save you that drama. But in my opinion Krejci was the first priority for the team. And how could anyone not be happy with this deal, especially seeing how early into the teams offseason the B's perused and signed him. Not to mention the fact that they didn't overpay either. Which has become a common tradition for the Black & Gold in the past.
So whats next for Krejci and Chiarelli? Word on Krejci is that he will undergo surgery tomorrow (June 4th) to repair his hip and then will be on the long road to recovery. As for Chiarelli, he still has a lot of work ahead of him with the possibility of re-signed restricted free agents Phil Kessel, Matt Hunwick and Byron Bitz and even a few unrestricted players. This deal though I believe is a good sign of things to come. The B's don't have a lot of wiggle room left but I still think they can keep Kessel and maybe even Hunwick if they play their cards right. But the real question is at what cost. Time will tell and until then, congrats Krejci.
