BOSTON — The Boston Bruins pulled the curtain closed on the Unique Six franchise’s most profitable period since Bobby Orr hung two Stanley Cup banners within the outdated Backyard.
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The Bruins despatched captain Brad Marchand, the final remaining member of their 2011 NHL championship group, to the Florida Panthers on the commerce deadline on Friday in a purge of a roster that has adopted unprecedented regular-season success with, largely, playoff disappointment.
Boston will obtain a second-round draft decide for Marchand that might grow to be a first-rounder if the Panthers win two rounds within the playoffs and he performs in 50% of their postseason video games. The Bruins additionally shipped ahead Justin Brazeau to Minnesota, ahead Charlie Coyle to Colorado, ahead Marc McLaughlin to New Jersey and defenseman Brandon Carlo to Toronto. Ahead Trent Frederic was traded to Edmonton earlier within the week, signaling the beginning of the Boston fireplace sale.
“We didn’t burn it down. We have a lot of guys. Now we have to do a better job of building around it and charting a course that says we’re back,” Bruins basic supervisor Don Sweeney informed reporters on Friday night time. “We’re trying to put things in a position where we’re right back in a competitive situation next year.”
Marchand was a brash rookie when he teamed with Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to win all of it in 2011. They might return to the finals once more two years later.
And whereas the success continued, it was solely within the common season: Heading into this yr, Boston had earned at the very least 100 factors in every of the final six non-pandemic seasons, however its solely prolonged playoff run was a visit to the 2019 Cup closing.
That value coach Bruce Cassidy his job simply three years after enjoying for the Cup. Jim Montgomery changed him and in his first yr the Bruins completed with NHL information of 65 wins and 135 factors however misplaced within the first spherical to Florida; after a second-round exit in 2024 and an 8-9-3 begin this season, Montgomery was additionally fired.
“We’ve had a good run. We didn’t complete the ultimate goal. We were close,” Sweeney stated. “We thought we had a very good team a few years ago, and didn’t get it done. If I could replicate that team …. I’d do it.”
A four-time All-Star who excelled at irritating opponents with his face-licking and other antics, Marchand has 422 goals and 554 assists in 16 NHL seasons, all of them in Boston. He ends up fourth on the Bruins’ all-time list for goals, sixth for assists, first in short-handed goals and first in overtime goals, first in playoff goals and second in playoff points; he is fourth in team history with 1,090 games, one spot ahead of Sweeney.
Marchand has 21 goals and 26 assists this season but has not played since leaving the Bruins’ March 1 game against Pittsburgh with an unspecified upper body injury. Sweeney said Marchand is expected to be out for another 3-4 weeks.
Marchand, 36, will earn $6.125 million this year and is due to become a free agent after the season.
“We’ve been trying to sign Brad all year long. We had a gap there,” Sweeney stated. “He’s beloved here. I would never close the door.”
Marchand, who was elevated to captain after Bergeron retired in 2023, is the fifth Bruins captain to be traded, with Ray Bourque and Joe Thornton being the latest. Nobody will put on the captain’s “C” for the remainder of the season, Sweeney stated.
Here’s what else the Bruins got here away with for his or her rebuild:
—Forwards Casey Mittelstadt and William Zellers and a 2025 second-round draft decide from the Colorado Avalanche in change for Coyle and a 2026 fifth-round draft decide.
—Defenseman Henri Jokiharju from the Sabres in change for a 2026 fourth-round draft decide.
—Defenseman Daniil Misyul from the New Jersey Devils in change for McLaughlin.
—Forwards Marat Khusnutdinov and Jakub Lauko and a 2026 sixth-round decide for Brazeau.
—Ahead prospect Fraser Minten and a 2026 first-round decide for Carlo.
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