Don Sweeney explains how the Bruins came to the decision to trade Brad Marchand
It seemed impossible just a few months ago, but Brad Marchand is no longer a Boston Bruins player.
The Bruins dealt their captain and franchise legend to the Florida Panthers just before Friday's 3 p.m. ET NHL trade deadline.
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The Bruins received a 2027 conditional second-round pick from the Panthers. Here are the conditions on the pick, per the team:
"The conditional second-round draft pick will become a 2027 or 2028 first-round draft pick if Florida wins two rounds of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Marchand appears in at least 50 percent of the team’s playoff games."
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Boston will retain 50 percent of Marchand's salary, too.
The Panthers being the team to acquire Marchand is a stunner. There weren't any trade rumors linking Marchand to the Panthers in recent weeks. Florida also has knocked Boston out of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, so there's plenty of history between these franchises.
The Bruins came into this season with a lot of optimism, but lackluster play on the ice has resulted in them sitting in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and three points out of a wild card playoff spot with 18 games left in the regular season. The B's have just a 4.2 percent chance of reaching the postseason, per MoneyPuck.
NHL
Marchand and the Bruins also weren't able to work out a contract extension. His current deal expires after this season.
The 37-year-old veteran has said for a while that he wanted to finish his career in Boston. It is still possible for him to return to the Bruins in free agency over the summer.
If Marchand never returns, he will finish pretty high on a lot of the Bruins' all-time leaderboards. He ranks fourth in games played (1,090), fourth in goals (422), sixth in assists (554), fifth in points (976), first in shorthanded goals (36) and second in game-winning goals (82).
Marchand made his debut with the Bruins in the 2009-10 season and played a huge role in the team winning the 2011 Stanley Cup Final over the Vancouver Canucks, which ended a 39-year championship drought for the franchise.
Marchand is one of the best players in team history and is a strong candidate for the Hockey Hall of Fame whenever his career concludes.
