Weighing the professionals and cons of Bruins buying and selling Brad Marchand

Brad Marchand may web a powerful return for the Bruins, even when his management and manufacturing can be missed.

Brad Marchand might be dealt earlier than Friday’s commerce deadline. Photograph by Maddie Meyer/Getty Photographs

The Boston Bruins are heading into uncharted territory this week.

For the primary time in additional than a decade, the Bruins and Don Sweeney are able to prioritize the longer term over short-term good points — with Boston poised to promote forward of Friday’s NHL commerce deadline.

As Boston’s playoff odds proceed to dwindle (MoneyPuck has them at only a 9.2 p.c probability of constructing the postseason), the Bruins can be clever to take advantage of a misplaced 12 months by recouping belongings on gamers not a part of their long-term plans.

Pending UFAs like Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau might be moved within the coming days, whereas lineup regulars with time period like Brandon Carlo or Charlie Coyle may be dealt for the precise value.

However what about captain Brad Marchand?

Very like Frederic, Marchand’s viability as a commerce chip makes loads of sense for a promoting group just like the Bruins, given Marchand’s standing as a pending UFA.

However the determination to maneuver on from a group captain whose No. 63 sweater may grasp within the TD Backyard rafters in due time is a name that Sweeney and Co. is not going to take evenly — particularly with the veteran already expressing a want to stay in Boston on a number of events.

Because the Bruins mull their choices within the coming days, listed below are the professionals and cons of Boston buying and selling away Marchand earlier than Friday’s deadline.

If the Bruins go for a extra cautious sell-off on the deadline, they’d stand to recoup a few draft picks by transferring on from the likes of a Frederic (whose present harm may hinder his worth) or a Brazeau (who has not scored a purpose in 16 video games).

But when the Bruins wish to truly speed up their retool by way of a first-round choose, intriguing prospect, or younger roster participant, transferring Marchand affords the best alternative for Boston to extract some worth out of a misplaced season.

The case could be made that the Bruins may additionally get some robust returns out of transferring lineup regulars with time period like Carlo. However Marchand is precisely the kind of participant that contending groups would pay a premium for.

Marchand is probably not the identical franchise winger he was just a few years in the past. However, the 36-year-old ahead continues to be a productive middle-six ahead on tempo for 28 targets and 62 factors this season. His two-way skillset, Stanley Cup pedigree, and knack for each producing within the playoffs (138 factors in 157 postseason video games) and pestering opponents make him a coveted participant for groups seeking to put themselves excessive.

A Bruins franchise hindered by a barren prospect pipeline would welcome touchdown a second or third-round choose for a participant like Frederic.

However may the Bruins safe a haul with Marchand much like the bundle they paid in 2018 to herald a 33-year-old Rick Nash? Boston coughed up a 2018 first-round choose, two NHL roster gamers (Ryan Spooner and a depressed asset in Matt Beleskey) as effectively a promising prospect (Ryan Lindgren) because the headliners of the deal so as to add a participant of Nash’s caliber.

Three years in the past, the Flyers additionally landed a prime younger participant in Owen Tippett — plus each a primary and third-round choose — as a part of the return for buying and selling 34-year-old captain Claude Giroux.

It stays to be seen what the precise return can be for Marchand. However given Marchand’s distinctive standing as a longtime on-ice antagonist and veteran chief, odds are that the Bruins would get a number of worthwhile belongings in the event that they deal their captain.

Finally, the Bruins’ determination to commerce Marchand would possibly revolve round simply how formidable Boston’s retooling plans are.

Do the Bruins suppose they’ll observe an identical script because the Capitals: aggressively retooling on the fly to construct round franchise pillars already in place (David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy)?

If that’s the case and the Bruins suppose they’ll proper the ship this offseason, transferring on from a longtime captain and nonetheless efficient middle-six ahead in Marchand is probably not the perfect transfer.

An anemic Bruins offense that has tallied two targets or fewer in 32 of their 62 complete video games this season has felt the sting of transferring on from an inconsistent scorer in Jake DeBrusk in free company final summer time.

Buying and selling Marchand would assist Boston’s long-term plans, no query.

But when the Bruins actually suppose they’ll rejigger their roster in report time to take advantage of Pastrnak and McAvoy’s prime, dealing Marchand would create yet one more emptiness in Boston’s already unimpressive ahead corps amid a busy offseason.

If the Bruins are capable of bridge the hole on a brand new contract with Marchand transferring ahead — particularly one at a decrease fee than his present $6.125 million annual payout — having a 20-goal winger with Marchand’s skillset stands as large worth.

All issues thought of, this Bruins group is ideally is trying so as to add scoring, slightly than subtracting from an already listless roster.

In fact, Marchand’s present contract standing may additionally be the straw that breaks the camel’s again on the subject of the Bruins’ determination to maneuver on from their captain.

PRO: A commerce eliminates danger of dropping Marchand for nothing

Each Marchand and Sweeney have stated all the proper issues on the subject of figuring out the captain’s long-term future in Boston.

Sweeney famous on Feb. 23 that making Marchand a “Bruin for all times” was his “final purpose” forward of the commerce deadline.

“I’ve at all times deliberate on enjoying right here my total profession. That hasn’t modified,” Marchand added the next day. “They’re conscious of that. I believe everybody’s conscious of that. It’s a present to play for this group. I take an amazing delight in it. So yeah, that’s the purpose.”

In fact, each Steven Stamkos and Lightning GM Julien BriseBois additionally stated all the precise issues within the months main as much as the Tampa Bay captain’s pending free company.

In a really perfect state of affairs, the Bruins and Marchand work out a deal that retains him in a black and gold sweater for his total profession.

However as evidenced by Stamkos’ eventual free-agent exit from Tampa final July, these best conditions don’t at all times play out — not when enterprise takes priority over emotion and nostalgia.

And if the Bruins and Marchand can’t come to phrases on a brand new contract earlier than Friday’s deadline, the Bruins would possibly view a commerce because the pure subsequent step, particularly if each events don’t really feel as if they’ll bridge the hole on time period or cash.

The shortage of readability in returns to Marchand’s subsequent contract is the motivating issue as to why Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman stays not sure about what Marchand’s future is in Boston.

“Boston’s historical past is that their negotiations are at all times onerous,” Friedman stated on his “32 Ideas” podcast on Monday. “It’s simply the best way they’re wired — that each negotiation they do is a grind. I’m truthfully stunned a bit of bit that it’s gotten thus far at totally different instances. I’ve heard issues have gotten higher, after which it’s sort of pulled again.

“It’s sort of been like an ebb and circulate of a negotiation. I don’t know the right way to name this one proper now. … On the 4 Nations, [Marchand] talked about being a Bruin for the remainder of his profession, and I utterly agree that that’s what he needs. Simply that as we’re sitting right here … that isn’t a actuality, and I simply don’t know the right way to handicap it.”

If Marchand was keen to signal a short-term deal at an identical low-cost worth like earlier Bruins captains like Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, one would assume that the ink would have already been lengthy dry on a contract at this level.

But when Marchand is looking for a multi-year deal, the Bruins is perhaps hesitant to comply with that contract — particularly if it’s at a payout much like his present $6.125 million cap hit.

Granted, the Bruins have made probably the most of Marchand’s present deal — the place they’ve reaped the advantages of getting a top-five winger in his prime years making effectively beneath his projected contractual worth.

But when Marchand is on the lookout for one thing akin to what Stamkos was looking for by way of safety and monetary compensation (4 years, $32 million with the Predators), the Bruins may need to grapple with the truth that such a contractual deadlock can’t be remedied.

If the Bruins really feel as if they’ll’t realistically discover center floor with Marchand, a commerce — even when it hinders the group within the quick time period amid a fast retool — nonetheless stands as a greater various than letting Marchand stroll in July.

Such a state of affairs the place Marchand willingly indicators elsewhere in free company appears extraordinary. Granted, numerous Lightning followers and staffers most likely thought the identical factor precisely a 12 months in the past.

Con: Marchand’s management can be missed on a Bruins group in transition

Talking after Boston’s loss to the Islanders final week, Marchand spoke like a veteran chief already seeking to combat the precise the wrongs of this present season … in 2025-26.

“Clearly it hasn’t been the season that we’ve wished and we haven’t had success that we’d have appreciated this time of the 12 months,” Marchand stated. “However the good factor is that we’re coming collectively over it.

“And on the finish of the day, we might not obtain what we hope to this 12 months, however that doesn’t imply that we will’t construct for one thing higher and produce it again subsequent 12 months. We’re going to work each single day to proceed to enhance and construct our recreation and we’re going to claw and combat each single day to get into the playoffs right here.”

Because the Bruins look to the longer term and attempt to increase their roster transferring ahead, retaining round Marchand would possibly maintain worth past his on-ice contributions.

The Bruins may need a number of star skills already locked up between Pastrnak and McAvoy.

However not like in earlier seasons the place the Bruins’ management corps was complemented by established veterans like Nick Foligno, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Pat Maroon, the Bruins are one of many youthful groups within the league today.

Past Marchand, the one different two gamers on Boston’s roster over the age of 30 are Charlie Coyle and Elias Lindholm.

Amid the anticipated inflow of recent faces set to hitch Boston’s roster this summer time, Sweeney’s musings final month appear to sign an emphasis on including youthful gamers able to getting into nice roles transferring ahead.

“Can we make strikes that purchase and restock? Can we discover gamers which are a bit of additional alongside and determine them correctly? All the above are all elements of the equation,” Sweeney stated on Feb. 23, later including. “It’s nearly the place the wheels spin.

“As a basic supervisor, you’re attempting to enhance your hockey membership general and enhance organizational depth. So, we’ve to do a greater job, and that’s what shall be tasked going ahead.”

Because the final vestige of Boston’s 2011 Cup run and the ultimate hyperlink to a management grouping headlined by Bergeron and Chara, Marchand may nonetheless maintain worth to a Bruins group set to pen a brand new chapter transferring ahead.

However by the identical token, retaining Marchand for the sake of stated management — as an alternative of flipping him for belongings and placing the onus on a brand new forged of vets to steer the cost — would possibly hold Boston in the identical crossroads it presently finds itself in.