Bruins
Brad Marchand has spent his entire 16-year career with the Boston Bruins.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - DECEMBER 21: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins disputes a call during the first period of the game against the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden on December 21, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Brad Marchand had played his entire 16-year career with the Bruins. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
By Conor Ryan
March 7, 2025 | 3:22 PM
3 minutes to read
It’s the end of an era in Boston.
Despite Brad Marchand’s repeated claims of wanting to finish his career in a black-and-gold sweater, the Bruins traded their captain on Friday afternoon to one of their top rivals in the Florida Panthers.
It’s a relatively minuscule return for the Bruins — with Boston acquiring a 2027 conditional second-round draft pick from Florida.
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% of the team’s playoff games.
It marks the first time that the Bruins have traded their captain since dealing Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in November 2005. The 36-year-old Marchand has played in 61 games this season with Boston — scoring 21 goals and 47 points.
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Marchand will likely see his No. 63 sweater raised to the TD Garden rafters in coming years, with the feisty winger cementing himself as one of the franchise cornerstones that helped Boston make it to three Stanley Cup Finals — including one victory in 2011.
Marchand has etched his name across the Bruins record books — with the winger ranking first in postseason goals (56) and second in playoff points (138) behind Ray Bourque.
Once viewed as a bottom-six pest, Marchand elevated his game after being stapled on a line with Patrice Bergeron — with the duo sticking together as a dynamic one-two punch for 13 seasons.
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A model of consistency during his Bruins tenure, Marchand has scored 20 or more goals in 11 consecutive seasons — the longest streak in franchise history. He finishes his Bruins tenure fourth in goals scored (422) and fifth in points (976).
With the Bruins’ playoff hopes all but dashed, a scenario where the Bruins tabbed a pending free agent in Marchand as a trade chip became more tangible — despite both Marchand and Don Sweeney stressing multiple times that they wanted to work out a new deal.
“That’s always been my ultimate goal,” Sweeney said of making Marchand a Bruin for life on Feb. 23. “We’ve been in negotiations with Brad and communicating with him throughout the year. We’ll have to have a conversation now the Four Nations is over, and sit down with Brad and his representatives and have a clearer path in the next two weeks as to what his final outcome will be.”
The next day, Marchand reaffirmed his desire to stay with Boston moving forward.
“I’ve always planned on playing here my entire career. That hasn’t changed,” Marchand added while speaking to reporters at Warrior Ice Arena on Feb. 24. “They’re aware of that. I think everyone’s aware of that. It’s a gift to play for this team. I take a tremendous pride in it. So yeah, that’s the goal.”
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Even with Boston’s chances of making the playoffs all but snuffed out, Marchand seemed like a veteran willing to go through some growing pains in 2025-26 with this current roster.
“Obviously it hasn’t been the season that we’ve wanted and we haven’t had success that we would have liked this time of the year,” Marchand said. “But the good thing is that we’re coming together over it. And at the end of the day, we may not achieve what we hope to this year, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t build for something greater and bring it back next year.”
While the chance remains for Marchand to return to Boston on July 1 in free agency, it looks as though the Bruins will turn to a new wave of leaders in hopes of righting the ship in Boston moving forward.
Profile image for Conor Ryan
Conor Ryan
Sports Writer
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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