Bruins captain Brad Marchand makes his desires known ahead of trade deadline
With uncertainty aplenty for the Bruins, captain Brad Marchand is keeping it certain.
Standing at his locker following Monday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena, and just a day after Bruins general manager Don Sweeney seemed to indicate that just about everything was on the table for the ‘cautious’ Bruins ahead of the Mar. 7 trade deadline, Marchand made his future plans clear once again.
“We’re obviously in talks,” Marchand confirmed when asked about his Bruins future. “I feel like I understand where I’m at personally. But, again, that’s going to stay between us.”
The talks, of course, are in regards to a potential extension with the Bruins, which is something that Marchand and the Bruins have been at for months now. And with Sweeney confirming on Sunday that the Bruins and Marchand are still engaged on those discussions. Sweeney even said that Marchand was the only pending free agent that the Bruins would even entertain extending ahead of this year’s trade deadline, which gives you an extra peek into how they feel about him.
So with that in mind, this is a deal that should get done.
But as is the case with just about everything involving the 2024-25 Bruins, it’s not that simple.
As for the other possibility of the Bruins including Marchand in a potential trade deadline sell-off — the 36-year-old Marchand is in the final year of his current contract and would absolutely net the Bruins their best return in any deadline retool — Marchand continued to hammer home the point that he’s not interested in putting on any uniform other than the one that he’s worn for his entire pro career.
“I’ve always planned on playing here my entire career [and] that hasn’t changed,” Marchand said. “They’re aware of that. I think everyone’s aware of that. It’s a gift to be playing for this team and I take a tremendous amount of pride in it. So, yeah, that’s always been the goal.”
But, again, this year is not like most years for the Bruins.
In fact, the Bruins began Monday night one point out of the playoff spot in the Eastern Conference’s wild card hunt, and with a less than 15 percent chance of qualifying for the postseason per Moneypuck.com. It’s difficult to find any sort of math that is currently on the side of a franchise that’s consistently ‘bought’ at deadlines since Sweeney took over for Peter Chiarelli in 2015. And there’s no denying the aforementioned point that Marchand, who is still a productive player and possesses an absolutely fantastic playoff resume, would net the Bruins enough assets to accelerate a potential on-the-fly retool.
That’s something that Marchand, despite his desires, is more than aware of with six games to go before the trade deadline comes for the Black and Gold and the rest of the NHL.
“Even in your best years, guys get moved or things happen. You have no control over things like that, and you really just can’t get caught up worrying about it,” Marchand, who does possess a limited no-trade clause, said. “You got to worry about what you can control and and just try to stay in the moment. The team’s always going to do what they feel is best and for the group and the best way they can improve the team. That’s completely out of our control, so you just can’t worry about that.”
And while it’s out of his control, Marchand can and will continue to make it clear what he wants to happen between now and the deadline… and beyond.
