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The Boston Bruins are “getting closer” to finalizing a three-year extension for captain Brad Marchand, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday.
Marchand is playing on the final season of the eight-year, $49 million deal he inked with the Bruins in 2016. An extension would stop him from hitting unrestricted free agency next summer.
The longest-tenured Bruin since Patrice Bergeron’s retirement in July 2023, Marchand was named captain ahead of the 2023-24 season. He has so far recorded four assists in seven games while the Bruins have gone 3-4-1 to open the 2024-25 campaign.
Marchand is skating in his 16th NHL campaign, all of which he has played with the Bruins. Last season recorded 29 goals and 67 points in 82 games while leading the Bruins to the franchise’s eighth straight playoff appearance.
The Bruins’ 2024 playoff run ended last spring with a second-round loss to the eventual champion Florida Panthers.
Having signed starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year, $66 million extension and talks of trading Marchand at the deadline likely soon to case, Boston will hope to make a deeper run next spring despite the team’s relatively slow start to the season.
That start involved Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, who is also currently working on an expiring contract, expressing visible frustration with Marchand during an Oct. 19 overtime loss to the Utah Hockey Club. When asked about the incident Marchand defended Montgomery and expressed confidence in the third-year Bruins head coach.
Marchand ranks fifth among all Bruins players with 1,037 games played, 401 career goals and 933 career points.
The veteran winger also leads the 101-year-old franchise with 56 postseason goals, and ranks second only to Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque with 138 points in 157 playoff games. He is also the only remaining player from the roster that led the Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup.
The Bruins’ progress toward an extension means that Marchand will likely be the third Bruins captain to fill the role for at least three years. Bergeron held the position for the final three seasons of his career, stepping in after Zdeno Chara’s 14-year term. A three-year extension could allow Marchand to continue serving as the team’s leader through the 2027-28 season.
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