By: Jason Cooke | Follow me on X @cookejournalism
Brad Marchand is a Florida Panther — a designation not many foresaw at the beginning of the 2024-25 Boston Bruins season kickstarted by Don Sweeney inking some promising free agents with hopes to boast Boston’s roster with some postseason pedigree. But after a dismal season, the Bruins (30-30-8) are in a much different place than they likely anticipated some five months ago.
It’s what sent Boston’s captain out the door. As Sweeney and the Bruins’ top brass committed to a retool of sorts, extending Marchand to a sizeable contract didn’t necessarily make the most sense for a group looking to rebuild around its young centerpieces.
Marchand will certainly be missed donning the spoked B on his crest. A lifelong Bruin, Marchand appeared in 1,090 games for Boston and netted 422-554-976. He raised a Stanley Cup in 2011. But the Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara era is officially over. The Bruins are now David Pastrnak’s team, and perhaps that’s what the B’s needed to embark on a new era of Bruins hockey on Causeway Street.
Sweeney’s decision to move on from Marchand clearly reflects that sentiment, opting to build around a core of Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman moving forward. Marchand was by no means detrimental to the Bruins on or off the ice — nobody is denying his gravitas in the locker room and on the ice sheet. Players praised Marchand’s leadership qualities at the recent 4 Nations Face-Off on Team Canada. But as the Bruins look to perform an organizational reset, maybe dealing Marchand was something that simply needed to be done.
The trade will ultimately allow Pastrnak, Boston’s superstar cornerpiece, to become the lone face of the franchise as the Bruins look to rebuild to Stanley Cup contention. Ever since Pastrnak debuted with the B’s in the 2014-15 season, he’s showcased his elite scoring capabilities that have cemented him as one of the NHL’s best. He posted a career-high 61-52-113 in 2022-23 and has tallied 34-48-82 as the lone sense of consistent offense on a struggling Bruins team this season.
As it currently stands, Pastrnak’s 82 points are 42 more than the next Bruin on the stat leaderboard (Pavel Zacha has 40). He’s been doing it himself all season, singlehandedly keeping the Bruins on the bubble of playoff contention when all other signs continued to point to a rebuild.
Pastrnak now has the full reigns of the Bruins with Marchand’s exit — a step in his growth that was coming sooner rather than later. Pastrnak recently said he hasn’t thought about becoming the team’s next captain and admitted he won’t ever change his style of play based on the position he’s in. But he’s certainly a strong candidate to become Boston’s next designated leader at the start of next season, using the teachings of Bergeron, Chara and Marchand before him.
“I’ve had the pleasure to be with them every single day and work with them,” Pastrnak said. “They try to make you better as a player and as a person and make you grow up fast. I’ve seen a lot of stuff I’ve learned from them, and I can’t thank them enough for what I’ve been through with them, and obviously you’re going to have to try to carry this over to this group.”
Regardless if Pastrnak is honored as the Bruins’ next captain, he will undoubtedly be relied upon to be the team’s offensive backbone through the next stage of Boston’s retooling. Seeing Marchand leave is a gut punch to a Bruins organization that never intended to close that chapter as it did. But Boston is now Pastrnak’s hockey team — something that was inevitably going to have to happen for the Bruins to return as a serious contender.
Leave a Reply