Panthers acquire Brad Marchand from Bruins for draft pick

It appears that Brad Marchand will be wearing a new uniform this season, as the Florida Panthers have acquired the Boston Bruins captain.

Boston has acquired a conditional second-round pick in 2027, which will become a first-rounder in 2028 if Marchand plays 25 percent or more for Florida during the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Marchand was a pending unrestricted free agent in the last year of his eight-year contract with a $6.125 million cap hit, although it never seemed like he was at risk of moving on from the team considering his legacy in Boston, where he’s spent his entire career up to this point. That especially seemed like the case when Marchand went down with an upper-body injury last weekend. However, he was ranked 5th on Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli’s Trade Targets list ahead of the deadline.

While it will be weird to see Marchand in anything other than Bruins’ black and yellow, the Panthers are about as perfect of a fit for him as you can get. While Marchand isn’t the elite winger he used to be, the Panthers are the nastiest and most annoying team in the league right now, especially coming off of their 2024 Stanley Cup win, and Marchand is probably the nastiest and most annoying player of the last 10-15 years.

The Panthers will have to wait to see Marchand’s debut with the team, as he is dealing with that upper-body injury and is currently out on a week-to-week basis. It’s expected that he’ll at least be able to get into a couple weeks of regular season games before the playoffs.

Marchand has been struggling with production a bit more than usual for his standards, as he has just 21 goals and 26 assists for 47 points in 61 games this season. That would have put him on pace for 62 points before his injury, his lowest point total since 2015-16 before he broke out as an elite winger in the league.