Panthers’ Brad Marchand to Debut Versus Utah in Return From Upper-Body Injury
At long last, forward Brad Marchand is expected to make his Florida Panthers debut against the Utah Hockey Club on Friday at Amerant Bank Arena.
Marchand, acquired via trade from the Boston Bruins on March 7th in exchange for a conditional 2027 second-round pick, has only played one game this month due to an upper-body injury. He last suited up on March 1st versus the Pittsburgh Penguins but played just 2:18 over three shifts before departing.
The 36-year-old was cleared to begin skating with his new teammates a few days after being traded to Florida. After ramping up over the last few weeks, the veteran skater was a full participant in Thursday’s practice, indicating he was nearing a return to action.
“We expect him to get into this game, we expect him to play for us,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice told reporters following Friday’s morning skate, including NHL.com’s George Richards.
“We should say, we’ll get him through warmups and see, but he has healed past that. We expect him to play. … He has had an incredible career, is a Stanley Cup champion, has played [over] 1,000 games, has lots of points — but I don’t want to see all of that in one game.”
The plan is for Marchand to draw in on the Panthers’ second line, joining centre Sam Bennett and rookie Mackie Samoskevich. He’s also expected to earn power-play minutes with the team’s second unit.
In 61 games with Boston this season, the four-time All-Star scored 21 goals and 47 points while averaging 18:26 minutes per game, his lowest total since 2014-15 (16:54).
“Everyone is going to watch everything he does,” Maurice said. “Fans, but players on the bench, too. You see it during practice when Brad did something with the puck or scores a goal, everyone on the ice saw it.”
Since arriving in Florida, Marchand has spent the last few weeks adjusting to his new surroundings and teammates, using his time off to learn the club’s system and plays.
While he would’ve preferred to play immediately after the trade, as Maurice said, the Panthers bench boss feels keeping him out of the lineup may have a positive effect upon his return.
“We have had our new players in all of our pregame meetings, whether they played or not,” Maurice said. “So, he knows what we have been talking about the past two weeks because he has been in all the meetings. That should help him in knowing his reads, and where we’re at.”
Marchand is in the final season of an eight-year, $49-million contract with a $6.13 million cap hit, which Florida acquired at 50 percent retained as part of its trade with Boston earlier this month. He will become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
For his career, the Halifax, Nova Scotia, native has played 1,090 NHL games – all with the Bruins – since debuting in 2009-10, posting 422 goals and 976 points. Prior to last season, the organization named him the 27th captain in franchise history.
The Panthers enter Friday’s matchup against Utah with 11 games remaining in the regular season and sit just one point back of the Toronto Maple Leafs for top spot in the Atlantic.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Sarah Connors. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.