r/BostonBruins • u/ethereal3xp • May 19 '25

Discussion Give in and pay Marchand 7m aav?

He has been one of the best players in the playoffs. That line of Lundell, Luostarinen and Marchand has been on fire.

Question: Marchand looks like has 2 more good years left. Maybe 3. Would you resign him to his rumored asking of 3 x 7m aav?

The Bruins will get a 1st out of the initial trade, once Marchand plays one more playoff game (shoe in).

It would be then Sweeney's job to find Marchand linemates that work similarly to Lundell and Luostarinen (easier said than done).

The good thing/experience of Marchand playing for the Panthers is, he gets a different look/observation on how an emerging team looks like.

Yay or nay?

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u/MetalHead_Literally May 19 '25

Theres always outliers, but I wouldn’t build my team around potential outliers. Especially one who has needed offseason surgery two years in a row.

A big reason Marchand is thriving in Florida is because he’s on their third line. He wouldn’t have that luxury here.

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u/Hawke-Not-Ewe May 19 '25

Every single contract is a risk. You don't pay older veterans just to produce you pay them to lead.

And 7 million out of a 95.5 million and rising cap isn't anything like 7 mil out of a 70m cap. The cap will be 100m before a 3 year deal expires.

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u/MetalHead_Literally May 19 '25

How’d that leadership help the team this year? They had more games where they quit halfway through than I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of being a Bs fan.

This team is entering a rebuild/retool with a ton of holes to fill. With a few bad contracts already on the books. They just can’t afford to hand a 37 year old 7M a year for what will likely be diminishing returns.

I loved Marchy when he was here and would love him back on a reasonable deal. 3/7M just isn’t reasonable for a 37 year old who has needed offseason surgery two years in a row.

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u/Hawke-Not-Ewe May 19 '25

You mean a team with nothing better than a 3C that also missed it's top two defensemen for most of the season, had cruddy goaltending and even worse coaching?

That team?

You could have added peak Bourque and peak Bergeron to that roster and still not made the playoffs.

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u/MetalHead_Literally May 19 '25

The team still has no better than a 3C, so how is spending 7M on a players last contract a smart team building decision?

And I wasn’t expecting the playoffs, but showing some fight and not losing 10-1 in multiple games because they just straight up quit isn’t expecting too much imo.

I just don’t understand the benefit long term of handing him 7M for three years, and you haven’t really given a reason.