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How Brad Marchand went from Bruins lifer to goner |
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Ty Anderson
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The Bruins made it clear that they wanted to keep Brad Marchand around.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney acknowledged it as one of his top objectives before the season began. Even when the Bruins admitted that the uncomfortable path of selling was the one that they were going venture down at the 2025 trade deadline (and boy did they ever), they said that a Marchand extension was still in their plans. They even went as far to say that Marchand was the only pending free agent that the club would even consider extending ahead of the trade deadline.
All the while, Marchand made it clear he wanted to remain with the Bruins and be a career-long Bruin.
When all signs pointed towards a split being what was best for the club maximizing an on-the-fly retool, the Bruins and Marchand remained in complete agreement as to their desires. But the desires did not align with the reality as the horn sounded on the deadline frenzy, with the 36-year-old Marchand instead shipped off to the Panthers in a last-second deal on Friday afternoon.
Just how did that happen?
“Just had a gap,” Sweeney said when asked why the sides could not hammer out an extension before the trade proved to be the . “We had been talking, really from day two of free agency in terms of what his intentions were and where we were at, and we always had a bit of a term gap that took us a while.”
The Bruins, for what it’s worth, believe that they had bridged the gap on term before the trade deadline. This was always an interesting part of the Marchand equation, as it was natural to believe that the Bruins’ top preference would’ve been for Marchand to fully transition into those one-year, bonus-heavy deals that the Bruins had signed their previous captains, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, to once they hit the 35-plus age bracket and were eligible to sign those deals while taking things year to year.
Additional reporting from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan on Saturday indicated that the Bruins were even willing to go three years with Marchand. But the gap remained, and the Bruins pivoted.
“A player is more than entitled to have an understanding of what they think their market value is and do what’s best for them, and I have to always respect that,” Sweeney said on Friday night, seemingly indicating that money was an issue without saying as much. “There’s never an ounce of me that won’t respect what that player thinks is best for him and his family. And that’s a decision that was made.
“And then we had to make a really, really difficult decision to say, ‘Well, let’s give Brad another opportunity with a really good team and then he can make his decision as what he thinks is best moving forward.”
Sweeney also confirmed to 98.5 The Sports Hub that Marchand did not force his way down to Florida, but acknowledged that the Bruins had listened to his representatives and presented them with some potential options to get a feel for what Marchand would’ve preferred. For the Bruins and ultimately for the potential suitors, the risk-reward factor was measured, with not too many teams able to make the kind of gamble that the defending Cup champions were able to make given Marchand’s current injury situation.
“With his injury, it complicates things a little bit,” Sweeney, who settled for a conditional second-round pick in the deal, admitted. “So you’re just basically talking to the teams that are willing to take on that risk in the position they’re in [and are] comfortable that he’s going to miss the timeline that’s likely, and work through it and find out who’s willing to take that and do the best job you can for the organization.”
The Bruins, for what it’s worth, view Marchand’s ailment as one that’ll come with a 3-to-4 week recovery, meaning that he may have to go on a heavy ramp-up to get into regular-season games before the start of the postseason. That explains why the conditions on the second becoming a first-round pick — Marchand would need to play in 50 percent of the Panthers’ playoff games and the Panthers would need to make it to the third round — are so strong for the second to become a first for the Bruins.
In essence, the Bruins were truly viewing this situation as one where the Bruins could’ve received nothing for a player who would not appear in another regular season game and then walk as a free agent.
“Ultimately, once the gap was there that he wasn’t going to sign, now whether or not we could have taken the time in between now and then, and maybe it changes, but in the time leading up to it, it hadn’t,” said Sweeney. “And that’s where the tipping point is and I have to do what’s right for the organization.”
One thing that’s lingered throughout this — even if it’s been less than 24 hours at this point — is whether or not Marchand could leave and then return to the Bruins as a free agent this July. It’s been a fan theory and nothing more to this point, but I had to know if it was one shared by the Bruins themselves. Even if it did break Sweeney’s previously-stated code of not talking about players on other teams.
“I mean, that’s probably a better question for Brad at this point in time [with] the emotions that he’s going through,” Sweeney told me. “I love Brad. I’ve said all along. We’ve been trying to sign Brad all year long. We just had a gap there, and I respect where he believes his market value is, and I hope he respects our position. Because he’s beloved here. I would never close the door.”
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