The Boston Bruins have signed center Patrick Brown to a one-year, $775,000 contract.
Brown was set to become an unrestricted free agent after the conclusion of his two-year contract with an $800,000 cap hit. There are currently no details regarding any no-move/no-trade clauses or signing bonuses with this contract. He gets a slight drop in his pay by only $25,000 after receiving the highest cap hit of his career on his previous contract.
Brown is coming off of a season where he got into only 15 games at the NHL level with the Bruins, and was held to only one assist in those games.
Brown spent a majority of his season in the AHL with the Providence Bruins, where he had a career-high 17 goals and 29 assists for 46 points in 56 games. He also only has 2 assists in 5 playoff games so far, as Providence currently finds themselves down 2-0 in their division semifinal series against the Charlotte Checkers.
Brown was an undrafted free agent signing out of Boston College by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2014, making his NHL debut in that same season. After five seasons with the Canes, including winning the Calder Cup with the Checkers in 2019, he went to unrestricted free agency, where he signed for two years with the Vegas Golden Knights. He played out that contract before then signing with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2021. After parts of two seasons, he was dealt to the Ottawa Senators at the 2023 trade deadline in return for a sixth round pick. He went back to free agency that summer, where he signed his current two-year deal with the Bruins.
Brown is the Bruins’ first transaction of their offseason. The Bruins still have 10 unrestricted free agents and 13 restricted free agents left to re-sign, highlighted by Morgan Geekie and Mason Lohrei, and will have almost $29 million in cap space to work with.
The Bruins will look to build the team up again after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign that saw them miss the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. Their 33-39-10 record was the fifth-worst record in the league, and will pick seventh overall after the results of Monday’s draft lottery.
