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There will be a lot of emotion during Brad Marchand’s first game in Boston as a visitor.

BOSTON — On the day of the 2025 NHL trade deadline, one of the most transformative days in recent memory for the Boston Bruins, Charlie McAvoy was stuck on his couch.

The Boston defender was still recovering from an injury he suffered during the 4 Nations puck-off that landed him in hospital. The Bruins were in Tampa for a two-game trip.

McAvoy and his wife watched the minutes tick by until the 3 p.m. ET deadline and breathed a sigh of relief. Despite rumors that his team might demolish everything, the damage was not as bad as they feared.

“And then things started happening after the deadline, 3:10, 3:15,” McAvoy recalled. “And it’s just difficult. That’s the nature of hockey. That’s the essence of the game. But there are human beings behind it, great friends, great friends of my wife. And it’s sad. It’s never easy to see your friends leave and go somewhere else.”

The Bruins were one of the busiest teams on March 7, trading away five veteran players. The Deepest Dagger: Saying Goodbye to Captain Brad Marchand. It’s not just that the Bruins parted ways with a player they drafted in the third round nearly 20 years ago, a fiery winger who helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2011 and a leader who matured under their watch and continued to establish the team culture. The destination was just as magnificent: Florida. The Panthers shocked the historically dominant Bruins in 2023 by knocking them out in the first round of the playoffs, then won their first Stanley Cup the following season. This was the team Marchand helped create a new rivalry with. And the team that took Boston to the top of the hockey world.

In the seven months since the trade, Marchand helped the Panthers win another Stanley Cup, scoring six goals (and two game-winners) in the final against Edmonton. Marchand continued to taunt his opponents, became beloved in the Panthers locker room and seemed to be having more fun than ever embracing the Florida culture.

“Brad is an honest man, and that’s why he belongs in our group,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said in June. “He loves the game, he loves the people around him, he’s very open, very sociable, so he fits in perfectly. He’s completely accepted.”

Marchand resigned this summer to Florida on a six-year, $31.5 million deal — which a rival front office executive called “a shock for a 37-year-old.” Meanwhile, the Bruins have embraced a hard reset, recalibrating short-term expectations while injecting the roster with younger players.

On Tuesday, Marchand will return to the ice at TD Garden for the first time as an opponent for the Bruins (7:30 a.m. ET, ESPN).

“I’m excited for this one. I mean, it’ll be fun to compete with guys that I’ve played with for a long time and be on the other side,” Marchand said Monday. “I’m sure it will be a pretty intense game. It will be fun to play in front of the Bruins fans again.”

Everyone prepares for the emotion.

“I’m sure we’ll have a great tribute to him and all the blood, sweat and tears he gave to the Bruins – one of the best Bruins to ever play the game,” McAvoy said. “I think he’ll get an incredible ovation from the crowd. And then he’ll probably get booed right after.”

“I’m sure it’s going to be difficult for some people,” Marchand said. “They won’t be able to clap because they don’t like the Panthers that much. Maybe they’ll like me enough to do a little ‘Yay’ or something.”


IT WAS ALWAYS Marchand intends to be a lifelong Bruin. The Bruins had their sights set on contending for the Stanley Cup last season. Everything went off the rails with a disastrous start, which cost coach Jim Montgomery his job 20 games into the season.

“Last year was a seismic shift in the way we live,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney told ESPN. “We had to take a cold, hard look at ourselves in the mirror and understand where we were. We weren’t anywhere near the level we had been at over the last six or seven years, and we had to make some very difficult decisions professionally, and some very difficult decisions personally.”

Marchand, who was named captain of the Bruins in September 2023, was in the final year of an eight-year, $49 million contract. While he and the Bruins have been engaged in contract negotiations for several months, negotiations have stalled, even as the pressure point of the trade deadline approaches. Marchand wanted security and to be paid what he was worth. The Bruins had other parameters.

“I was never going to take a one- or two-year contract. Not even a three-year contract. It just wasn’t in the cards,” Marchand told reporters before this season. “I want to play as long as possible. That’s the main reason it didn’t work out in Boston. I want to play until I’m kicked out of the league.”

Marchand was injured at the deadline; it looked like a four to six week delay. Sweeney said his leadership group determined that because of the team’s place in the standings, the deadline would mark a “change in direction,” with an emphasis on adding to the team’s depleted prospect pool. Veterans Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau were also traded as the Bruins acquired six draft picks (including two first-round picks and two second-round picks), two prospects (including 21-year-old center Fraser Minten, who is already contributing) and several players under the age of 30, including Casey Mittelstadt, Marat Khusnutdinov and Henry. Jokiharju.

The most difficult file was that of Marchand. According to sources, the Bruins had reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Kings, but honored Marchand’s desire to stay in the East for family reasons. Florida, unbeknownst to the public, was his preferred destination. He thought he might only have one chance to win the Stanley Cup, and the Panthers were preparing for their back-to-back bid.

Even after that trade, the Bruins never saw the door completely closed with Marchand. But they never had the chance to formally discuss a contract again, as he re-signed with the Panthers before hitting free agency on July 1.

“We’ve certainly had discussions about it, as to where it fits in the long term,” Sweeney said. “When I had a chance to talk to Brad after the trade, he focused on the fact that he was going to get a long-term deal. It wasn’t going to change between what he accomplished in winning the Stanley Cup and if he made it to July 1. We didn’t get a chance to cross that bridge. [because he re-signed with the Panthers]but we certainly would have appreciated Brad coming back if he had decided that, within the parameters that we could do.”

That closed the chapter of Marchand’s tenure with the Bruins, one that included 976 points in 1,090 games and endless memories.

“At the end of the day, what he always wants is to make the playoffs and win, and that’s what he was able to accomplish last year,” Sweeney said. “So we’re proud of him for that, but unfortunately it wasn’t our case.”


MERCHANT HAS MAINTAINED its deep ties to Boston. He says his favorite part of the city is the fans, hands down.

“The city is amazing, but the fans make it awesome. They’re just unique,” Marchand said. “It’s as simple as every time I go for coffee — I have the same routine, same coffee every day — there would be a message on my cup, if I had a good game or a bad game the day before. It would be like, ‘It was hard for you last night.’ At the very bottom, they bleed black and gold. This partly explains why there is so much pressure on the team to succeed and why they are so focused on that. You can’t slip. You don’t get to sneak into this town or you’re going to hear about it. We wanted to produce and be good for the fans and live up to that reputation, so it makes it special to play here. »

The Panthers arrived in town early on the final leg of a five-game trip. On Sunday evening, Marchand went to dinner with a group that included several former teammates: Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask and Adam McQuaid. Asked who headlined, Marchand joked: “They intimidated me. I did.”

Marchand’s most recent teammates, like McAvoy, were called to the playoffs with the Panthers. McAvoy is superstitious, so since he didn’t text Marchand at the start of the playoffs, he waited until after the series.

“We were able to connect immediately after their win, and I told him it was really inspiring to watch him play,” McAvoy said. “He’s just a great player. It’s so fun to see a guy that’s been with you and see the fire that he still has. It allowed me to reset a little bit and get that fire back.”

The Bruins have a new coach in Marco Sturm and, according to Sweeney, have put an emphasis on being tougher to play against. Everyone has to earn their ice time. Culture also continues to evolve. The team has yet to name a captain, after the role was successively occupied by Chara, Bergeron and then Marchand.

McAvoy said he and David Pastrnak are learning to take on a bigger role, while remaining authentic to themselves and the tradition that precedes them. It’s one of the ways Marchand’s legacy lives on on the team.

“For a long time in Boston, there was Bergy, Z and Marshy, and they were this perfect triangle of guys who leaned on each other, and each had different personalities,” McAvoy said. “You can talk endlessly about how amazing they are as individuals, how big their hearts are, how much they care about everyone around them. That’s definitely one of the pillars: taking care of your teammate and going above and beyond. Those three guys showed that every day, which made it fun to come to the rink. That’s something they encouraged there – and it’s great to be a Bruin. “

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