By Alexandra Becker ’18
Staff Writer
Rumors were put to rest in the final weeks before the season opener as Boston Bruins cut a deal to keep Brad Marchand for a couple more years. Marchand agreed to an eight-year, $49 million contract extension taking him into the 2024-25 season. This deal was a main focus of the Bruins organization seeing as he only had a year remaining on his contract. This contract will give him around $6.125 million a season.
In an interview for nhl.com, Marchand talked about his excitement to stay in Boston.
“This is an extremely exciting day for me and my family,” said Marchand. “I would like to thank the Jacobs family, Cam Neely, Don Sweeney, Claude Julien, the coaching staff, my teammates and our fans for their continued support and belief in me. I have been a Bruin since the start of my pro career and there is no place I would rather play. I look forward to doing everything I can to help our team achieve success and bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston.”
Marchand and his teammates aren’t the only people excited about this contract. Bruins fans are looking forward to the years to come as well. Kevin McPherson, a junior here at Merrimack said, “he’s a great fit here in Boston. It’s a pretty long contract but if he plays the way he did in the World Cup, it’s absolutely worth it. We now have two of the three best players on the Canadian national team locked down for a little while so that’s pretty cool.”
His recent role on the Canadian team in the World Cup of Hockey gave Marchand the recognition that he deserves. He was a core piece on the team, proving that when he netted the game-winning goal in the final 43.1 seconds of the second game of the finals against team Europe. As if that isn’t amazing enough, it was short-handed too. His phenomenal play put him at a tournament high five goals, along with three assists adding up to eight points. With his growing popularity in the likes of Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, rumors starting speculating about Marchand’s future after the upcoming season.
Coming in at 5’9”, 181 pounds, Marchand has been a power winger for the Boston Bruins throughout the years. Last season he played in 77 games, racking up a career-high 37 goals which brought him to sixth in the league.
The Boston Bruins haven’t made the playoffs the past few seasons so hopefully this deal and Marchand’s most recent success in the WCH will make him strive to help the team make the push to the play-offs.
