As more information rolls in about Brad Marchand’s exit from Boston, it’s not going to do any favors to a Boston Bruins team explaining things away to angry fans about a fan favorite and captain being traded to a huge divisional rival in Florida.
“[The Marchand trade] goes back a long ways for me and cuts deeper than, really, any player that I've had the privilege of getting to know and watch thrive and become a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest Bruins ever,” said Don Sweeney. “[It’s] a difficult day from that standpoint, personally, professionally, it's making some very difficult decisions.
“They're going to teams that we're jealous of. We've been in the same situation with those teams where they're loading up. Had we done our jobs, if I had done my job appropriately, starting there, we would be adding like we have in, you know, in the 10 previous years.”
Sure, there was a gritty, effective response from an undermanned B’s group on Saturday afternoon as they executed an impressively strong road game in a 4-0 shutout win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. It was eye-opening to see the hardnosed effort and 200-foot commitment from Boston that’s been lacking so many times this season, but it remains to be seen if it’s all a short-term adrenaline shot similar to the way the Black and Gold played immediately after canning Jim Montgomery.
After all, they can’t rely on two-goal games from Cole Koepke every night or sustained success without injured Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm in the lineup. Still, credit where it’s due for the way a rag-tag Bruins group responded and performed following a very stressful, emotional trade deadline that saw Marchand, Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo shipped out for players, prospects and draft picks.
“We’re going to miss those guys so much,” said Jeremy Swayman of the B’s players traded on ABC following his fourth shutout of the season. “They laid the groundwork here and it’s never going to be the same without them, but it has to be up to us to continue their legacy, understand that it’s a ‘next man up’ mentality and make them proud by the way we play, the way we compete and the way we prepare like Bruins do.
“I’m really excited for the group we have, but I’m going to miss the hell out of the guys that aren’t here anymore.”
Regardless of how plucky the Bruins play down the stretch, however, there is going to be a PR storm for the B’s to weather when it comes to fan approval rating over the seismic Marchand trade. Some are extremely unhappy with the conditional second-round pick return for the Bruins captain, which becomes a first-round pick if a) the Panthers win two rounds of the playoffs and b) Marchand plays in 50 percent of those postseason games.
That all seems very reasonable as conditions that could/should be met as long as Marchand is healed up by the playoffs, which would make it a palatable first-round pick return for a 36-year-old left wing approaching unrestricted free agency after the postseason. Marchand’s upper body injury, expected to keep him out for 3-4 weeks, made it impossible for the B’s to get a better return, though, since there is no telling exactly how much Marchand is going to play for whomever traded for him.
Theoretically, the Panthers could be spending a second-round pick on a player coming off an injury that will barely suit up for them again this year. Or they could be getting a player who could ostensibly replace Tkachuk in the lineup if his suspected groin injury remains problematic for the rest of the season.
Either way, the Bruins were never going to get a big bounty for damaged goods in Marchand, and they had a very limited number of trade partners for him based on his no-movement clause and preference for a landing spot. It makes 100 percent perfect sense that Marchand would want to play for a Florida team building another wagon for this spring’s playoffs, and to be reunited with former Bruins 2011 Cup-winning teammates Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell working in the Panthers organization.
But it also sounds like Marchand did everything possible to stick around with the Bruins, including reportedly calling a meeting together with B’s management to work things out face-to-face on a multi-year deal.
“Brad Marchand asked for a face-to-face meeting with Bruins management. I don’t know when it was and I don’t know who was there for management,” said Hockey Night in Canada host Elliotte Friedman during Hockey Night in Canada’s Saturday hot stove panel. “But it did happen and in that meeting Brad Marchand asked for a compromise.
“He said ‘I will compromise, I will bend on some of my asks and I’m asking the Bruins to bend on some of their stance and we’ll find a way to get this done.’ It was because he wanted to stay a member of the Bruins and it just didn’t happen. The Bruins had gone as far as they were willing to go.”
On Saturday Headlines, @FriedgeHNIC provides an update on what went wrong with the Brad Marchand situation in Boston pic.twitter.com/drzasKuBrG
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 9, 2025
The unwillingness for the Bruins to meet Marchand on a middle ground, whatever that might have been, is going to be a sore spot for Bruins fans. It certainly isn’t going to cost Bruins management their jobs, however, as Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs made a point of releasing a statement giving his blessing to the sweeping trades that Don Sweeney engineered earlier this week.
“In Boston, we’ve been fortunate to witness the rise of generational talent who fostered a culture of excellence within our locker room and led our club to victory,” wrote Jacobs in a statement. “Brad Marchand, our captain, Stanley Cup champion and Bruin of 16 years, will forever be part of that legacy. While we made our best efforts to keep Brad in black and gold for the rest of his playing career, he now embarks on the next chapter of his journey. We wish him, his wife Katrina and their three children Sloane, Sawyer and Rue the utmost success.
“Cam, Don and the hockey operations team have my full support as they make these very difficult decisions, which we collectively believe will set our franchise up for a new era of success in the future. Our goal remains unchanged: to be a Stanley Cup championship-drive organization. Together, we are changing a course for the next century.”
All that being said, it is going to be a bitter pill for Bruins fans to watch Marchand suit up in a Panthers uniform during the Stanley Cup playoffs and wreak havoc on the ice with Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and other Florida skaters that have tormented the Boston Bruins over the last couple of postseasons. That is a very unusual and cruel form of torture for Bruins fans.
This is something Sweeney and Neely might never fully live down during the rest of their tenure steering the B’s ship, and one has to hope it doesn’t engender long term hard feelings between the Bruins franchise and one of the greatest, most iconic players to ever done the Black and Gold in its Original Six history.
ONE TIMERS
*Interesting pickup from Buffalo when the Bruins traded for defenseman Henri Jokiharju by sending a fourth-round pick to the Sabres. He looked strong wearing No. 44 with the Bruins and finished with a plus-1 rating in 18:38 of ice time, seven shot attempts and a blocked shot while working quite a bit in a pairing with Nikita Zadorov. This may be another example of a player looking like they’ve been released from hockey jail after getting out of the annual mess that is the Buffalo Sabres.
It's also Bruins talent evaluators paying close attention to the Four Nations Face-Off where Jokiharju played very well for Team Finland among all the injuries on the back end, and that may have bumped up his stock for a team missing a lot of their usual defensemen with McAvoy and Lindholm injured, and Carlo now being moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
*Lost in all the trade hubbub on Friday was Billerica native Marc McLaughlin getting traded to the New Jersey Devils for 24-year-old defenseman Daniil Misyul. The 25-year-old McLaughlin had two goals in 12 games for the Bruins this season and has been a hard-working, solid member of the organization doing everything asked of him and more since signing as an undrafted free agent out of Boston College a handful of years ago.
“Marc McLaughlin, obviously a hometown young man that, again, you can't speak enough about his character and personality,” said Sweeney. “We want to thank him as well for being a Bruin.”
In a day and age where there are more and more young hockey players feeling entitled and like hockey owes them something, McLaughlin has always been a pleasant, team-oriented guy willing to diligently work on his game and do whatever is asked of him without ever asking any questions.
That kind of throwback player will be missed in the Bruins organization, but good luck to him in New Jersey where Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald undoubtedly values that kind of hockey player.
