Brad Marchand: Trade rumors ‘not something that I really see happening’
"My goal is to play here forever."
Brad Marchand has donned a black-and-gold sweater in all 1,086 games in his NHL career.
The Bruins captain hopes to keep wearing that spoked-B until the day comes for him to hang up his skates.
But with the 2024-25 Bruins continuing to slide down the standings and team management acknowledging that a retool could be on the horizon, Marchand’s future with the only NHL club he’s ever played for could be in jeopardy.
Despite Marchand’s standing in Boston’s dressing room — and his pedigree as a Stanley Cup champion — the value placed on the 36-year-old forward by the Bruins is the exact reason why many Cup contenders would likely covet Marchand if the pending free agent was dangled out on the trade market.
Speaking to DJ Bean and Pete Blackburn during an interview on the “What Chaos!” podcast, Marchand stressed that he’s “not worried” about trade rumors hovering over him ahead of the March 7 deadline.
“Obviously when things aren’t going well with your group or going the way that I think it was expected to go, that’s what happens, right? These conversations start to come up more and more in the media, and articles come out and then all it takes is one article, or one person making a comment on TV or the radio or a podcast — and then it kind of takes off from there,” Marchand said of rumors. … “So I try not to get caught up in it.
“You can’t worry about things you can’t control and that you don’t have a part in. But yeah, I could see — with the way that on paper it looks, at this time of year, that’s what people do. They start looking at potential outcomes and stuff like that.”
The 2024-25 campaign has not gone according to plan for Marchand and his teammates, with a roster seemingly restocked ahead of a promising playoff run this spring currently tabbed with just a 14.9 percent chance of making the postseason — per MoneyPuck.
If Boston’s management opted to wave the white flag and punt on this season, moving Marchand this spring for a chance at a Stanley Cup could give them an opportunity to regain draft capital or prospects.
Much like how Boston dealt a first-round pick, roster player (Ryan Spooner), and a promising prospect (Ryan Lindgren) in order to pry a 33-year-old Rick Nash out of New York in 2018, Marchand could still secure the Bruins a nice haul if a team is desperate to add a pugnacious, top-six talent like Marchand for the stretch run.
But as the Bruins mull their options ahead of March 7, Marchand once again deflected a scenario where he’s wearing another sweater in the coming months.
“Obviously, it would be very weird,” Marchand said of getting dealt. “I think I would feel very weird, probably a little lost. But I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it before. And I don’t really think about it, because it’s not something that I really see happening.”
Even if the Bruins might be looking at a spring spent outside of the playoff picture for the first time since 2016, Marchand stressed that Boston’s commitment to winning and the urgency with how they operate is one of the primary reasons why he wants to continue playing for the organization.
“My goal is to play here forever,” he said. “I love it here, and my family obviously loves it here. And what I love most about it is that the expectations that are put on the group by — internally, just from management, ownership, from the team within — like the expectation to be good every year is what you want to be part of.
“You want to be part of a winning team. You never want to go to a team that’s … rebuilding — that’s not enjoyable hockey. You want to be playing something meaningful every year. And we’ve had years where we miss playoffs, and we’re fighting for our lives going down the stretch in a playoff race like we are now.
“Those are some of the best years that you have, because every game is meaningful, and it’s like playoff hockey for a long stretch. So a little adversity is good for a group. But yeah, that’s what I love about being here. They want to win, and that’s what you want.”
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