Near the end of the National Hockey League (NHL) trade deadline, Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand was traded to the Florida Panthers.
In return for the longtime stalwart, the Bruins received a 2027 second-round draft pick that will become a first-round pick in 2028 if the Panthers win two rounds of this season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs and Marchand plays 50% of the games.
Marchand is currently in the final season of an eight year, $49 million contract. While he had initially wanted to stay with the Bruins, contract negotiations stalled after both sides could not agree on his yearly salary. This, paired with the Bruins hesitance to offer a contract that ran for longer than two years, led to Marchand’s departure.
Marchand is currently sidelined with an upper-body injury that will likely keep him out until the postseason. Once Marchand returns to the ice, the Panthers will have an experienced forward who can play big minutes if called on to do so as the team battles with the Toronto Maple Leafs for first place in the Atlantic Division.
This trade was the final move in a Bruins firesale as they are currently on the outskirts of playoff contention. As a result, the team has dealt both Charlie Coyle and Justin Brazeau to the Minnesota Wild, Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Trent Frederic to the Edmonton Oilers.
Meanwhile, the Panthers are hoping to put themselves in pole position to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Marchand was the fourth player the team has acquired over the past week as they have also added defenseman Seth Jones, goalie Vitek Vanecek and forward Nico Strum.
During his 16 seasons with the Bruins, Marchand scored 422 goals with 554 assists in 1,090 games with the team. He is the Bruins’ all-time leader in playoff goals scored with 56 and has the second most playoff points with 138, 23 behind Ray Bourque for the most in team history. Marchand was also the last remaining Bruin from the 2011 Stanley Cup championship team that defeated the Vancouver Canucks in seven games, signaling the end of a memorable era in Bruins history.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/44154081/champion-panthers-land-brad-marchand-bruins
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/bruins-career-playoff-point-leaders
