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Brad Marchand discusses contract negotiations, ‘mutual respect’ among rivals

Boston Bruins Victory Parade

BOSTON, MA - JUNE 18: Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins reacts to cheers during a Stanley Cup victory parade on June 18, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

Jim Rogash

Boston Bruins breakout rookie Brad Marchand must be enjoying life right now. He had a fantastic first full season at the NHL level, finishing the regular season hot to score 21 goals (and 41 points) then making a bigger impact in the playoffs by scoring 19 points in 25 playoff games.

Of course, that hot run - and its lack of comparable previous seasons - makes it tough to gauge exactly how much the winger’s next contract should be worth. The restricted free agent is like Luke Schenn, Drew Doughty and others in that he isn’t eligible for salary arbitration, so there isn’t as much urgency to get a deal done.

That doesn’t mean that he’s totally oblivious to the need for a new deal, although he didn’t really provide a whole lot of details in this interview with CTV Atlantic. Here’s what Marchand had to say about the contract talks, which really aren’t that big of a change of pace from previous comments.
“Right now, we’re just kind of getting into things,” Marchand said. “It’s been a long summer and people have been on vacation and enjoying the Cup so we’re going to start getting into it pretty heavily here and hopefully we’ll get something done soon.”

WEEI points out that he said nearly the same thing in mid-July.

Either Marchand isn’t heavily involved in the negotiations or there hasn’t been much progress made. Of course, there’s the possibility that he’s just using that answer until his deal gets signed. General manager Peter Chiarelli has been tight-lipped as well, saying recently that he will not comment on progress of the negotiations.

Douglas Flynn took particular interest in some of Marchand’s comments about his friends on other teams. He noted that Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews (no surprised in the latter in particular) were rooting for him and also said that he actually gets along pretty well with P.K. Subban, who plays for the hated Montreal Canadiens.

“We played World Juniors together,” Marchand explained. “What happens on the ice stays on the ice. There’s that mutual respect between hockey players. We were buddies when we played World Juniors. It’s part of the game. Guys are going to get hit. It could have been a lot worse. He could have got me in the head.”

Instead, Marchand’s old buddy may want to keep his head up when he plays the Bruins. When Murphy asked if Marchand still owed Subban one for that hit, Marchand replied with his usual mischievous smile, “I’ll take a run at him if I see an opportunity.”

That’s just the way some hockey players are: they beat each other senseless on the ice but are good friends when they trade uniforms for street clothes. We’ll find out how much it will cost to keep Marchand in Bruins’ duds (and for how long) soon enough.