FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Nate Schmidt left the ice at the Florida Panthers’ practice facility Saturday morning with a huge smile on his face.
The defenseman knew everyone wanted to ask him about now-former Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand joining the Panthers after a plethora of intense battles in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past two years.
“Marchand playing with these guys? Absolute chaos,” Schmidt said.
The Panthers acquired the forward from the Bruins just before the NHL Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. ET Friday, sending a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft to Boston.
It was a trade that shook the hockey world. Marchand and the Panthers?
Really?
“It’s exciting, and a bit of a surprise for the coaches, anyway,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We’re very excited about the idea.”
Marchand will not play for the Panthers right away, with general manager Bill Zito reiterating the Bruins’ timeline of “week to week” after Marchand sustained an upper-body injury in the first period of Boston’s 3-2 win at the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 1.
The 36-year-old has 47 points (21 goals, 26 assists) in 61 games this season.
“He will come in here and we’ll get our doctors to look at him to get an understanding of what the injury is,” Maurice said.
Marchand and Florida share a long history. After all, he’s played against the Panthers 53 times during the regular season since arriving in the NHL during the 2009-10 season.
He was, before being traded, the longest-tenured Bruins player, spending 16 seasons in Boston and playing 1,090 regular-season games and another 157 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was during the postseason when things between the Panthers and Marchand really escalated.
In the 2023 Eastern Conference First Round, the heavily-favored Bruins took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, only to see the Panthers storm back and win Game 7 in overtime at TD Garden in Boston. The Bruins entered that series off the best regular season in NHL history, finishing with 65 wins and 135 points.
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