The Bruins are shipping out captain Brad Marchand to the Panthers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports the trade is happening, pending league call. Boston is receiving a 2027 second-round pick that will upgrade to a 2028 first-round pick if conditions are met, per John Buccigross of ESPN. The Bruins will retain 50 percent of Marchand’s $6.125MM cap hit, per George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, alleviating any cap concerns Florida would have.
Both sides have made the deal official. The conditional second-round pick will upgrade to a first-round pick if Florida wins two rounds of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Marchand appears in at least half of the team’s playoff games.
Marchand is currently injured. He is expected to miss the next “couple of weeks” with an upper-body injury, Panthers general manager Bill Zito told media including David Dwork of The Hockey News. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney told Connor Ryan of the Boston Globe that Marchand should miss three-to-four weeks.
Just days after swapping top young goaltender Spencer Knight for top-four defenseman Seth Jones, the Florida Panthers are taking another swing at landing the blockbuster deal of the Trade Deadline. They’re able to take on Marchand’s reduced $3.0625MM cap hit after placing star winger Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve. Tkachuk is expected to likely miss the remaining regular season after suffering a lower-body injury at the 4-Nations Face-Off.
Marchand will fill Tkachuks’ role of getting under opponents’ skin perfectly. Tenacious forechecking and high scoring have been the defining attributes of Marchand’s 16-year career with the Bruins. He ranks fourth in Bruins franchise history in goals (422), games played (1,090), and penalty minutes (1,113). Marchand also ranks fifth in all-time points (976). Those are impressive records for a career-long player on an Original Six club, and they shape Marchand’s standing as one of the best Bruins of the 2010s.
Marchand’s legacy in Boston runs deep. The Bruins originally drafted him in the third round of the 2006 NHL Draft and awarded him with his NHL debut four years later. Marchand didn’t break out in 20 regular season games to start his career, but did explode as a high-
impact, top-six forward as Boston entered the 2011 postseason. He recorded 11 goals, 19 points, 40 penalty minutes, and a plus-12 in 25 games of Boston’s playoff run, ultimately supporting the team to their first Stanley Cup win since 1972.
That postseason performance stapled Marchand to Boston’s top-six, and he didn’t give the team a chance to second-guess. He scored 21 goals and 41 points in 77 games in his first full NHL season. He went on to average 23.2 goals and 45.4 points each season through the first five years of his career. But Marchand had plenty more in store. He broke out with 37 goals and 61 points in the 2015-16 season, the start of seven-year streak of rivaling or breaking the 30-goal mark. Along the way, Marchand posted a career-high 100 points in the 2018-19 season – on the back of a dangerous duo with Boston’s David Pastrnak.
Marchand continues to produce into this season. He has 21 goals and 47 points on the year, good for second on the Bruins in goals and points – and an 82-game pace of 28 goals and 63 points. But his eight-year contract is set to expire at the end of the season, and Boston has opted to net assets for him while they can rather than let him walk in free agency.
The headache of playing against Marchand could only get worse for his opponents around the Atlantic Division. This move sends him to the reigning Stanley Cup champions, where the role of a top-line grinder and scorer is clearly carved out. The Panthers rank second in the Eastern Conference with a 39-21-3 record this season. They also rank eighth in the NHL with a 3.25 goals-per-game average – just over 1.5 goals more than Boston has averaged this season.
Moving to an improved offense, and likely set to fill a role next to superstar Aleksander Barkov, should give Marchand a major scoring boost. He managed 29 goals and 67 points last season, and could quickly rediscover those totals as the Panthers look for a hard-nosed finisher in front of the net.
While the Panthers work to make the most out of Marchand’s first move away from Boston, the Bruins will work to find a reasonable top-line replacement. Boston acquired forward Casey Mittelstadt from the Colorado Avalanche earlier on Deadline day, which could open up a chance for Elias Lindholm or Matthew Poitras to push for the top left-wing role. If not a converted center, Boston will likely need to turn towards spot scorers like Morgan Geekie or Riley Tufte.
The Bruins could also use this as a golden chance to recall top prospect Fabian Lysell. Lysell ranks third among active Providence Bruins in scoring with 30 points in 46 games this season. He received his NHL debut earlier this season, but was reassigned after one outing without any scoring. Many fans have yearned for Lysell’s call-up throughout most of the last two seasons – though it seems Boston is still wanting him to find another gear before they promote him full-time. Lysell scored 50 points in 56 AHL games last year – good for fourth on Providence in scoring.
Marchand took over Boston’s captaincy after star Patrice Bergeron retired in 2023. Dealing him away will be a monumental shift for the Bruins lineup, that will likely take years to fully heal from. The potential for a 2028 first-round pick will support that process, though Boston could still end up a top name in buyer’s markets to come as they look to redefine their future. Meanwhile, Florida will inherent Marchand’s expiring contract. The 36-year-old winger could reasonably sign a short-term deal this summer to round out the end of his career, but that interest could be gauged by how long of a postseason run Florida is able to achieve. The Panthers added two top-of-the-lineup pieces in Marchand and Jones, bolstering a roster that was already ranked near the top of the NHL. They’ll be a formidable foe as the postseason rolls around.
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