Patrice Bergeron Enters the Hall of Fame With a Speech About the Kid Who Would Not Get Off the Ice

Patrice Bergeron entered the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night in Toronto, and his speech began with a kid who would not get off the ice. The longtime Boston Bruins center was inducted as part of the Class of 2026, alongside Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Keith Tkachuk, Cindy Curley and builder Brian Burke, and he used his time on stage to thank the two teammates who defined his career: Zdeno Chara, who handed him his plaque, and Brad Marchand, his linemate for most of it.

What happened at the Hall of Fame induction?

Six members of the 2026 class were enshrined on Monday night in Toronto. Bergeron, Price, Rinne and Tkachuk entered in the Player category, Curley for her pioneering role in women’s hockey, and Burke as a builder. The weekend built to the ceremony in stages: the class received its Hall of Fame rings on Saturday, gathered for a fan forum on Sunday afternoon, and on Sunday night Bergeron received his Hall of Fame blazer from Ray Bourque before dropping the puck ahead of the Hall of Fame game at Scotiabank Arena.

Bergeron called the induction surreal and humbling. He told reporters he looked up at the names in the Hall and saw Johnny Bucyk over there and Bobby Orr right in front of him, and that it was hard to believe his name is now up there in the same room. He is the 54th player affiliated with the Boston Bruins to be inducted, and the Bruins will retire his No. 37 on December 1, making him the 14th player in franchise history to have his number raised to the TD Garden rafters.

How did Bergeron’s speech begin?

With the kid in the back of the net. Bergeron said his mind always takes him to the feeling of putting on skates, and that as he grew, hockey became so much more than just a game. Then he went back to his first year of organized hockey, when he would sit in the back of the net, stacking pucks and refusing to get up. The only time he moved was to go see his parents by the boards and complain about how bad his skates were hurting his feet.

“But even then, after getting off the ice, I’d tell them how much I loved it,” he said. It is the kind of opening that explains the rest of the speech, which kept returning to the same idea: hockey is about people. “The friendships, memories and values of hard work, teamwork and humility will stay with me forever,” Bergeron said. The farewell-season stories around the league have the same shape this autumn, with Alex Ovechkin’s sons introducing him at his final home opener, but Bergeron’s version started 20 years earlier, with a kid who refused to leave the ice.

Why did he single out Chara and Marchand?

Because they were the two constants of a 19-season career spent entirely in Boston. Bergeron thanked Chara, his captain for 14 years, for his support and advice and for pushing him every single day to be better, calling him an incredible leader and a great friend. Chara, who entered the Hall of Fame himself in 2025, presented Bergeron with his plaque on stage, a year after his own induction.

Marchand got the warmer tribute. Bergeron called him his left winger for most of his career and said so many of his favorite memories are with him, from their chemistry on the ice to dinners on the road, and that their friendship became about so much more than hockey. Marchand, now with the Florida Panthers, made the trip to Toronto during the season to watch his former teammate’s induction. The symmetry is neat: the captain who led Bergeron handed him the plaque, and the linemate who shared his shifts flew in to watch him receive it.

Who else shared the stage with Bergeron?

A class that covered the whole sport. Keith Tkachuk opened his ten-minute speech by joking that it might be the first time a Tkachuk has ever received a warm welcome in Toronto, then thanked the Jets scout who drafted him in the first round in 1990 despite a broken ankle in his draft year. Cindy Curley, who began playing at five on Lake Boon in Massachusetts, said she never expected the honor and was overwhelmed with gratitude. Pekka Rinne, the 258th pick in 2004, told young athletes that their path does not have to look like anyone else’s.

Brian Burke, the builder inductee, said nobody starts playing hockey at 13 in Minnesota and dreams of the Hall of Fame, then thanked the people who carried him there anyway, including a goalie, Carey Price, who handed him a bottle of water mid-speech. The night belonged to the inductees, but the current Bruins were in the room too, with captain David Pastrnak in Toronto to celebrate the player whose place on the Bruins’ all-time goals list he tied earlier this season.

What is Bergeron’s Bruins legacy?

The numbers are the quiet kind, which fits him. Bergeron played 1,294 regular-season games for Boston and recorded 1,040 points, the third most in franchise history, with 170 playoff games, second in franchise history. He won the Selke Trophy a record six times and earned nominations in 12 consecutive seasons, also an NHL record. He scored twice in Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, including the game-winner, to bring the Cup back to Boston for the first time since 1972.

The path there was not smooth. Bergeron arrived at the 2003 draft with no real expectations, was taken by Boston in the second round, and made the team a few months later as an 18-year-old still learning English and adapting to a new country, dressing between Joe Thornton and Martin Lapointe and playing against his idols Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic. He thanked his 2003-04 coaches and Kent Hughes, who was his agent then and is now the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens. He was named an alternate captain in 2006 and wore the captain’s C for three seasons until his retirement in 2023. The captain’s chair has been a hard seat around the league this autumn, with Connor Bedard returning a month early for his own captain’s debut against the Penguins, and Bergeron held it longer than most.

What happens next for Bergeron and the Bruins?

December 1, when his No. 37 goes up at TD Garden. The Bruins will honor him before a home game, and he will become the 14th player in franchise history to have his number retired, joining the names he stared up at in Toronto. Bergeron closed his speech by thanking his family and the legends of the Hall of Fame, and by speaking to the next generation directly.

“Thank you for inspiring a young boy from Quebec City to believe that anything is possible,” he said. “I hope my journey inspires future generations to dream big, believe in themselves, and never stop chasing those dreams.” It is the same message he opened with, from the other end of a career: the kid who would not get off the ice is now the man whose number will hang above it. The league’s other farewell tour is still running too, with Ovechkin announcing this will be his final season after 22 years in Washington, but Bergeron’s ending is already written, and December 1 is its last line.