With the Devils and Capitals joining the mix, Brad Marchand’s future in Boston remains uncertain (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
While the Boston Bruins and captain Brad Marchand remain adamant in their desire to work out an extension, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney is still keeping his options open.
Multiple NHL sources have confirmed to RG that while Sweeney is not shopping his 36-year-old captain, he’s not changing the conversation when the veteran winger’s name comes up.
“Let’s just say he’s not giving an immediate ‘No!’ or ‘Next!’ when they ask what it would take to get Marchand,” one NHL executive source said. “He’s making it clear their first choice is to sign him, but he’s not ruling out anything, and if he did, he wouldn’t be doing his job. It’s a tough spot for [Sweeney] for sure, but this is the reality of where the team and player are right now.”
The Bruins general manager addressed the media this past Sunday and maintained his desire to sign Marchand, who can become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career on July 1.
“That’s always been my ultimate goal,” Sweeney said when asked if he still wants Marchand to be a lifelong Bruin.
“We've been negotiating with Brad and communicating with him throughout the year. We'll have to have a conversation now that the 4 Nations is over, sit down with Brad and his representatives, and have a clearer path in the next two weeks as to what his final outcome will be.”
As another NHL executive opined to RG on Tuesday, the fact that Marchand’s path isn’t ‘clear’ with the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline rapidly approaching confirms what the aforementioned source said above.
Marchand maintains that his goal remains to stay with the only team he’s known since entering the NHL in the 2009-10 regular season.
“I’ve always planned on playing here my entire career. That hasn’t changed,” Marchand told the media after practice this past Monday. “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 that. It’s always been the goal.
“We’re obviously in talks. I feel like I understand where I’m at personally, but again, that’s going to stay between us.”
What if a team like the Colorado Avalanche gave Sweeney an NHL trade offer he couldn’t refuse though, and Marchand suddenly had a chance to win another Stanley Cup and do so with his friend from his native Nova Scotia, Nathan MacKinnon, whom he just won the Four Nations Face-Off with for Canada?
“If Sweeney tells Brad that the reality is that a Cup run may not come in Boston for at least the next 2–3 years, then he [Marchand] has to think about that, no?” an NHL source rhetorically asked RG.
Back on Feb. 11, as the Four Nations Face-Off was getting set to begin in Montreal, RG reported that the Avalanche, the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, and Dallas Stars were all believed to be expressing interest in Marchand, and this same source above claims two more teams have been poking around on the 2011 Stanley Cup champion.
“New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals are in there, too,” the source said.
So, with just over a week until the NHL Trade Deadline, both the Bruins and Marchand would love to stay together, but an amicable parting of the ways still remains an option.
James Murphy
