Bruins Officially Enter ‘New Era’ After Shocking Brad Marchand Trade
Marchand was the last remaining player from the Bruins' 2011 Stanley Cup-winning team
The Boston Bruins are about to write a brand-new chapter in their storied history.
The Bruins on Friday traded captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers in an NHL deadline deal that shook the hockey world to its core. After moving Marchand, the B’s now have zero players remaining from their most-recent Stanley Cup-winning team in 2011.
The transition from 2011 to 2025 included many peaks and valleys — most notably, Stanley Cup Final losses to the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues in 2013 and 2019, respectively — but Marchand was the final piece of fabric connecting the past and the present, with Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron departing in recent years.
Now, it’s on to the future — officially.
The 2024-25 season has been a grind for Boston, which went into full sell mode this week, especially on Friday in the hours immediately preceding the NHL trade deadline. The Bruins traded away Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic, Justin Brazeau and Max Jones in addition to Marchand.
Andrew Raycroft noted Friday during NESN’s “NHL Trade Deadline Special” that the Marchand trade, in particular, marks the end of an era. And that couldn’t be more accurate, as Bruins fans will be introduced to new faces in the coming weeks, months and years.
Of course, several franchise cornerstones remain in place — like David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman. So, Boston has building blocks around which to build. The slew of trades made before Friday’s deadline certainly represent a hard reset, though.
Will it be for the better? Only time will tell. An important offseason awaits, and developments down the stretch even could guide Bruins general manager Don Sweeney in future decision-making.
That said, the Bruins chose to be bold. Marchand played in 1,090 career regular-season games and 157 more postseason games with Boston. And this marks the first instance of the B’s trading away their captain since sending Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in 2005.
It’s time for the Bruins to author the next chapter.
