After a ‘whirlwind’ few days, Brad Marchand is with Panthers — and eyeing a Stanley Cup
He walked into the room and up to the lectern wearing a red quarter-zip jacket and royal blue hat both emblazoned with a Florida Panthers logo.
Brad Marchand: A Florida Panther.
That’s something that still might take some time to get used to seeing.
But that’s the reality after Florida acquired him from the Boston Bruins, where he had played for the entirety of his 16-season NHL career and won a Stanley Cup, on Friday for a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.
“The first time I put anything Panthers on was last night,” Marchand said at his introductory news conference on Monday ahead of the team’s practice at the Baptist Health IcePlex. “I was FaceTiming on my kids. We were about to hang up, and there was a hat on the table, and I was like, ‘Before you go look at this,’ and I put it on it. It was a weird feeling, but reality is setting in here. I’m starting to feel like a part of the group. It’s been a whirlwind the last few days.
Marchand did his best to encapsulate those past few days during the course of about 20 minutes. His news conference had a little bit of everything. Quick quips. Honest, thought-out answers. A lot of emotions — excitement and rejuvenation about joining a new team but also reflective and somber about his tenure in Boston coming to an end.
In the end, it all circled back to a common theme.
“I’ve always had this attitude that you need to be grateful for every opportunity,” Marchand said. “The gratitude piece doesn’t get lost to me, that it’s a privilege to be part of this league and to be able to play here and to be able to play a game that we love every day for a living. When the trade happened, I was disappointed and I was sad, but I’m still extremely grateful that I get to come to an incredible place, an incredible team, a very, very, very competitive team. That’s what you want. I mean, ultimately, we chase the Stanley Cup. You want a chance at playing for that every single year. To be able to be part of a team that has that opportunity again this year, I’m very grateful for that. You never know how long you have in this league. You never know when your last day is going to be. You want to make the most of it.”
He will certainly have that chance with the Panthers, who play their next six games on the road starting with (ironically enough) the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Marchand, 36, will travel with the team but is not yet cleared to play after sustaining an upper-body injury on March 1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins that has him out week-to-week. Florida entered Monday with a 40-21-3 record, its 83 points four ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. In addition to acquiring Marchand, the Panthers swung big at the trade deadline by acquiring five-time All-Star defenseman Seth Jones as well as backup goaltender Vitek Vanecek and center Nico Sturm.
Marchand said this Panthers team reminds him a lot of the 2011 Bruins team that won the Stanley Cup, a team that had “incredible chemistry and incredible culture.”
He’s hoping his short time with the Panthers ends with a similar result.
“When you walk in here and you see the way the guys interact and the relationships that they have, and not just within the room as players, but their staff and their coaches and management, it shows why they’ve been the pillar in the league the last few years,” Marchand said. “So I’m extremely excited to be part of the group and really looking forward to getting back on the ice and becoming part of the group here.”
Where BMarchand will fit in
Marchand, who has 976 career points over 1,090 regular-season games played plus another 138 in 157 playoff games, will be a factor in all situations for the Panthers once he’s cleared to play.
He will easily slide in anywhere on Florida’s top three forward lines — although a hypothetical line of Marchand on the left wing, Sam Bennett at center and Matthew Tkachuk on the right wing is tantalizing to think about — and will factor into both the power play and the penalty kill.
“He might be one of the top guys, too. ... We think he’s still got some gas in the tank,” Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito said Friday after the trade was completed. “He’s a dynamic player. He’s a multifaceted attack — whether it’s his skating, his grit, his skill, his hockey sense, his will to win, his compete.”
Beyond his on-ice talent, Marchand adds yet another veteran presence to a Panthers dressing room loaded with experience and leadership.
“He’s a winner,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “He won the Stanley Cup with Boston, and every year he’s been part of a really good team. He has that experience of playing meaningful games and obviously everyone knows what kind of player and human he is. Excited to have him on our side.”
Latest on Brad Marchand’s injury
But when Marchand will suit up for the Panthers for the first time still remains to be seen. He was injured in the first period of Boston’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 1 and is likely still at least a couple weeks away from playing.
Marchand on Monday said he hopes to get back on the ice as early as Tuesday depending on how his testing goes.
“I’m getting better every day, I guess is how I would describe it,” said Marchand, who has 21 goals and 47 points in 61 games this season. “Timeline wise, I don’t really know when I’ll be back. I’m going to shoot to get back [as soon as I can]. It’s always been something that I’ve taken a lot of pride in is trying to really limit the amount of games that I miss and trying to push through whatever I can to play. That won’t change here.”
Thankful for Boston
While Marchand said it was unfortunate that he wasn’t able to stay with the Bruins, he wanted to reiterate that he has no ill will toward the organization.
He took out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe thanking the Bruins and the city of Boston and gave a nearly five-minute answer explaining the respect he has for Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, president Cam Neely and the rest of the team’s front office.
The Bruins and Marchand attempted to work out a contract extension leading up to the deadline but the sides couldn’t agree to terms.
“I’ve had an incredible run in that organization and I’m extremely proud just how things went there,” Marchand said. “It was very disappointing that things didn’t get done just because obviously I love the organization and I wanted to stay there, but at the end of the day, I also know that business is business and every player has a shelf life. ... Sometimes there’s things that are out of our control that dictate situations.”
That led to him becoming a Florida Panther, a move the Bruins helped facilitate once he made it known that his preferred trade destination.
“I just looked at the group, and I was like that’s the team that has the ability to go all the way again,” Marchand said. “When you match the drive with the experience and the depth of the group, it’s a very dangerous combination. When things were kind of coming up and kind of the writing was on the wall, this is absolutely the place I wanted to go.”
Now he’s here and ready to contribute.
“It would have been great to be able to stay and play out my career there,” Marchand said, “but this is an incredible opportunity, one that I’m really excited about.
“I feel rejuvenated coming here.”
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