It’s now official: Gionta joins Bruins

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

Brian Gionta‘s signing with the Boston Bruins became official shortly after noon today.

The Bruins made the announcement of a one-year, $700,000 contract. That amount will be pro-rated, since there are just six weeks remaining in the regular season.

The Greece native won’t need to go far to join his new team. The Gionta family remained in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence for the school year, and the Bruins will play in Buffalo this evening.

Since he hasn’t even practiced with the Bruins, he obviously won’t play tonight, but he could play Tuesday when Boston returns home to play the Carolina Hurricanes.

For Gionta, 39, signing with the Bruins caps the master plan for the season, ever since the Sabres opted not to re-sign the veteran right winger over the summer.

Rather than sign with the Bruins or another team during training camp, Gionta opted to spend time with his family and concentrate on playing for Team USA in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

He practiced with the Rochester Americans to prepare himself for the Olympic tournament, even playing one AHL game before departing for South Korea.

 

Welcome to Boston, @Giostyle21! #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/tu9FkIGhqB

— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 25, 2018

The final piece of the plan was to sign a contract with a Stanley Cup contender, and it’s believed this deal has been in the works for several weeks.

His hope before retiring has been to win one more Stanley Cup. He was a member of the 2002-03 Cup champion New Jersey Devils, his original NHL team.

The new team will be a bit of a “homecoming,” since he played four years at Boston College. He was a three-time Hobey Baker Award finalist with the Eagles, coming closest to winning collegiate hockey’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy as a senior in 2000-01. Instead, Michigan State goalie (and future Amerk and Sabre) Ryan Miller won the award. Gionta took greater pride, however, in helping Boston College win the NCAA championship that year.

The Bruins will be his fourth organization. He played eight seasons in the Devils organization, five with the Montreal Canadiens and three with the Sabres.

In 1,006 regular-season NHL games, he has scored 289 goals, 299 assists and 588 points. He also produced 32-36-68 in 112 playoff games. He scored 15-20-35 in playing all 82 games for the Sabres last season.

Durable has been a hallmark at the latter end of his career, missing just 16 games over the previous four NHL seasons.