Brad Marchand’s breakout performance last season both during the regular season and the playoffs helped make him a very important player to the Boston Bruins. Playing the agitating role while able to defend on the penalty kill and be an offensive threat can mean big things for a guy about to become a restricted free agent.
While Marchand has been busy celebrating winning the Stanley Cup all over New England, he’s also got a new contract to get figured out with the Bruins. After his performances last season, his price most certainly went up and that’s causing negotiations between the Bruins and Marchand’s agent, Wade Arnott, to be a bit more tricky.
While there’s no threat that Marchand will either be signed to an offer sheet nor will the Bruins let him go, it also means that negotiations slow to a crawl. As CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty shares, Arnott doesn’t see a deal getting done soon.
Marchand has said already that he believes a deal will get done between both sides thanks to mutual respect, but Marchand’s role as a cult hero in Boston after helping the team win their first Stanley Cup since 1972 has helped him make the case for how important he is to the team. GM Peter Chiarelli will have to figure things out the right way to see just what it is that will get him locked back in at a smart rate, but the Bruins will need Marchand back in place and happy.
After losing Mark Recchi to retirement and Michael Ryder to free agency, Marchand’s importance to the team has grown. The Bruins can’t afford to overshoot the market and give Marchand a big, silly contract and while the Bruins control his rights they will likely control their purse strings too. Finding the line between keeping a player happy and motivated and not driving him to madness with insulting offers is tricky. With how Chiarelli has worked in the past, you can’t expect that this drama will drag out too much longer.