BOSTON – 2025 NHL trade deadline day, one of the most transformative days ever boston bruins In recent memory, Charlie McEvoy Was trapped on his sofa.
The Boston defenseman was still recovering from an injury he suffered during the 4-Nation clash that sent him to the hospital. The Bruins were in Tampa on a two-game trip.
McAvoy and his wife watched the minutes approach the 3 p.m. ET deadline and breathed a sigh of relief. Despite rumors that his team might destroy it all, the damage was not as bad as he feared.
McEvoy recalls, “And then things started coming in after the deadline, 3:10, 3:15.” “And it’s very hard. It’s the nature of hockey. It’s the business of the game. But there are human beings behind it, good friends, my wife’s great friends. And it’s sad. It’s never easy to see your friends move on and go to different places.”
The Bruins were one of the busiest teams on March 7, adding five veteran players. The Darkest Dagger: say goodbye to captain brad marchandIt wasn’t just that the Bruins parted ways with the player they drafted in the third round nearly 20 years ago, a powerful winger who helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2011 and a leader who matured under his watch and continued to establish team culture. The destination was equally surprising: FloridaThe Panthers stunned the historically dominant Bruins in 2023 by defeating them in the first round of the playoffs, then won their first Stanley Cup the following season. They were the team with whom Marchand helped create a new rivalry. And the team that brought Boston to the top of the hockey world.
In the seven months since the trade, Marchand helped the Panthers win another Stanley Cup by scoring six goals (and two game-winners) in the finals against Edmonton. Marchand continued to taunt opponents, becoming beloved in the Panthers’ locker room, and enjoying embracing the Florida culture more than ever.
“Brad is an honest guy and that’s why he fits into our group,” Florida coach Paul Morris said in June. “He loves the game, loves the people around him, is very open, very friendly, so fits in perfectly. He’s totally approachable.”
Marchand re-signed with Florida this summer to a six-year, $31.5 million deal – which a rival front office executive called “sticker shock for a 37-year-old.” Meanwhile, the Bruins adopted a hard reset, realigning short-term expectations while infusing the roster with younger players.
Marchand returns to TD Garden ice for the first time Tuesday as the Bruins’ opponent (7:30 ET, ESPN),
“I’m excited for it. I mean, it’s going to be fun to compete against guys I’ve played with for a long time and be on the other side of it,” Marchand said Monday. “I’m sure it’ll be a pretty intense game. It’ll be fun to play in front of the Bruins fans again.”
Everyone is taking help of emotions.
McAvoy said, “I’m sure we’ll have a really nice tribute to him and the blood, sweat and tears he gave for the Bruins – one of the best the Bruins ever played.” “I think he’ll get an amazing ovation from the crowd. And then he’ll probably be criticized right after.”
“I’m sure it’s going to be hard for some people,” Marchand said. “They’re not going to be happy because they don’t like the Panthers very much. Maybe they’ll like me enough to give a little ‘yay’ or something.”
it was always Marchand intended to remain a Bruin for the rest of his life. It was the Bruins’ design to compete for the Stanley Cup last season. It all derailed with a disastrous start, causing coach Jim Montgomery to lose his job 20 games into the season.
“Last year was a seismic shift in terms of our situation,” Bruins GM Don Sweeney told ESPN. “We had to take a cold, hard look in the mirror and understand where we were. We were nowhere near the level of the last six, seven years, and we had to make some very difficult decisions professionally, and really 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 had been engaged in contract negotiations for several months, despite the pressure point of the trade deadline, negotiations stalled. Marchand wanted security and he had to be paid for it. The Bruins had other parameters.
Marchand told reporters before this season, “I was never going to do a one- or two-year deal. Not even a three-year deal. That wasn’t in the plan.” “I want to play as long as I can. 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 time of the deadline; It seemed like a time frame of four to six weeks. Sweeney stated that his management group determined that due to the team’s place in the standings, the deadline would mark a “directional shift”, with a focus on adding to the team’s dwindling prospect pool. giants charlie cuckoo, brandon carlo, Trent Frederick And Justin Brazeau The Bruins traded six draft picks (including two first round picks and two second round picks), two prospects (notably 21-year-old center fraser mintenwho is already contributing) and several under-30 roster players Casey Mittelstadt, Marat Khusnutdinov And henry jokiharju,
The most difficult file was Marchand. According to sources, a deal was reached with the Bruins Los Angeles Kings But respected Marchand’s wish to live in the East for family reasons. Florida, unbeknownst to the public, was their top destination. They believed they might only have one more 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 on Marchand. But they never again had the opportunity to formally discuss a contract. He re-signed with the Panthers Before reaching free agency on July 1.
“We definitely had discussions about where he would fit in long-term,” Sweeney said. “Having the opportunity to talk to Brad after the trade, he focused on the fact that he was going to get a long-term deal. There wasn’t going to be that transition between what he accomplished winning the Stanley Cup and if he was able to get to July 1. We didn’t get the opportunity to cross that bridge. [because he re-signed with the Panthers]But we certainly would have enjoyed having Brad back if he had made that decision, within the parameters that we can.”
It closed the chapter on Marchand’s tenure with the Bruins, which included 976 points in 1,090 games and endless memories.
“Ultimately what he’s always wanted is to be in the playoffs and win, and that’s what he was able to accomplish last year,” Sweeney said. “So we’re proud of him, but unfortunately he wasn’t with us.”
Marchand has maintained He has deep ties to Boston. He clearly says that his favorite part of the city is the fans.
Marchand said, “The city is incredible, but the fans make it amazing. They’re so unique.” “It’s as simple as that, whenever I go to get coffee — I have the same routine, the same coffee shop every day — there’s a message on my cup, if I had a good game or a bad game last night. It’ll be like, ‘Last night was hard for you.’ All the way down, they bleed black and gold. This is part of why there is so much pressure on teams to succeed and why they focus so much on it. You can’t slip. You don’t have the ability to slip 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’s special to play here.”
The Panthers arrived in town early on the final leg of a five-game trip. On Sunday night, Marchand went to dinner with a group that included several former teammates: Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask and Adam McQuaid. As to who introduced the bill, Marchand quipped: “They bullied me. I did.”
Marchand’s recent teammates, such as McAvoy, were involved in playoff runs with the Panthers. McAvoy is superstitious, so because he did not message Marchand at the beginning of the playoffs, he put off contact until the series ended.
“We were able to connect right after he won and I told him it was really inspiring to watch him play,” McAvoy said. “He’s just a big-time player. It’s so fun to watch a guy who has been there for you, and see that fire that he still has. It allowed me to reset a little bit in my mind and find that fire again.”
The Bruins have a new coach in Marco Sturm and according to Sweeney, he has placed a heavy emphasis on making it difficult to play against. Everyone must earn their ice time. Culture is also continuously developing. The team has not yet announced a captain, as the role was held consecutively by Chara, Bergeron, and then Marchand.
McAvoy said that he and david pasternak Learning how to play a bigger role while remaining authentic to ourselves and the tradition before us. This is one of the ways Marchand’s legacy still lives on with the team.
McAvoy said, “For a long time in Boston, you had Burgie, Zed and Marshy, and they were a perfect triangle of guys who depended on each other, each with a different personality.” “You can always talk about how amazing they are as people, how big their hearts are, how much they care about everyone around them. That’s definitely one of the pillars: taking care of your teammates, and going above and beyond for them. Those three guys displayed it every day, which made it fun to come to the rink. It was something they fostered there — that made being a Bruin great.”
