Blues sign Patrik Berglund to a 5 year contract extension

The St. Louis Blues announced on Friday that they have re-signed center Patrik Berglund to a five year contract extension worth $19.25 million, for an annual salary cap hit of $3.85 million. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the deal also contains a partial no trade clause.

Berglund was in the last year of a contract which pays him $3.7 million a season and allows him to block a trade to seven teams. His extension, then, represents a modest raise and potential increase in privileges, though the extent of the new no trade clause remains unclear.

Berglund has been the beneficiary of an extended hot streak which has seen him score 17 goals so far on the season, threatening his career high total of 22. Of those 17 goals, 16 have come in the team’s last 30 games, including his first career hat trick in a game against the Montreal Canadiens on February 11th. Berglund scored only once in the team’s first thirty games.

The 6’4” Swede was the 25th overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, and the team’s second pick of the first round after selecting Erik Johnson first overall. Berglund quickly became a fixture in St. Louis, and he has played every one of his 615 career NHL games with the Blues.

If Patrik Berglund plays out the length of his contract with the Blues, he will have the opportunity to have played in 1045 career games in the Blue Note. The franchise leader in games played is Bernie Federko with 927, allowing Berglund to miss as many as 119 games and still finish a contract at age 33 as the player with the most career appearances for the franchise.

After the original publication of this article, Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweeted a breakdown of the contract that shows it to be heavily front loaded. Berglund will receive $4.7M in 2017-18 and 18-19, $4.5M in 19-20, $2.9M in 20-21, and $2.45M in 21-22. The front loaded deal provides Berglund with more cash certainty and could make him easier to trade as the deal winds down.