Brad Marchand Will Take His Time When Free Agency Comes
Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period was SiriusXM NHL Network Radio this past week with Steve Kouleas and Carter Hutton. He was asked about Brad Marchand’s future and where he could go when Free Agency begins.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Carter Hutton: “And, obviously, the other shocker was Brad Marchand, right? How that comes to and where he fits in Florida now, with that contract looming and what happened in the face-to-face meeting. Where does he go from here? Or is this just play this out and see what happens here for Brad Marchand?”
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Dave Pagnotta: “I mean, yeah, I think it’s the latter. Like, just see where things go. See how the season plays out, and then figure things out once July hits, or close to it anyway. I think you saw his emotion when he was talking about in his introductory press conference with Florida. You saw the emotion that came out of him when he started to reminisce and kind of circle back on negotiations and his time in Boston and all of that. That was his home. I mean, that was his NHL home. He wanted to be there long-term. He wanted to be a Bruin for life. And clearly it didn’t happen.
I think there’s probably, if he does hit July 1st, they would circle back. But I don’t know if it changes Boston’s positioning to where the dollars were. I mean, they were looking at a three-year deal. We’d heard about this a little while ago, that if they were trying to figure out the money on a three-year, and it just never got there.
And it’s not like they, I know there were some reports of the $3 million or whatever. I’ve never gotten the sense it was that. He was looking for a little bit of a bump, and they weren’t willing to give it to him. But they weren’t looking at going like they weren’t insulting him from that perspective. They were still willing to give him a competitive deal. It just didn’t match up with his numbers, there was still a significant gap.
And I think a lot of people can certainly make the argument that he took a very team friendly contract when he signed his deal with Boston. He wanted to be rewarded in some fashion, and it just didn’t work out. So we’ll see what happens with Florida, and how things play out the rest of the season.
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They’ve got a couple other guys they got to figure out, contract-wise. Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad, who’s suspended right now. They may have some options to play with, and if things go well, maybe that’s spot that Brad stays at for the rest of his playing career.”
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