When the dust settles on the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the trophy is handed out, all eyes will turn to the NHL Entry Draft and free agency beginning on July 1. There going to be some big names available and some interesting movement could be headed fans way.
Just how many of the big-name free agents in fact do reach free agency remains to be seen as their current teams will likely try and get deals done before July 1 to avoid some of them. One of those players is former Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand, who is turning into a huge trade deadline pickup by the Florida Panthers.
Florida reached the Eastern Conference Final for the third year in a row on Sunday night with a 6-1 rout of the Toronto Maple Leafs in Canada. Marchand picked up thre points in the game, including a goal to add more pain and misery to Maple Leafs fans. After all the playoff pain that Marchand has supplied to Toronto, one NHL insider wonders if Toronto would make a run at him in free agency.
Could the Maple Leafs try and sign Brad Marchand in free agency?
Let’s not kid ourselves, there is going to be a market for Marchand this summer, should he hit free agency and not re-sign with the Panthers. Boston is a name that will always be linked to him and he was recently predicted to remain in the Atlantic Division, with the Detroit Red Wings. Elliotte Friedman on his latest 32 Through podcast wonders if the Maple Leafs would try and make a run at him this summer.
“Watching Brad Marchand fence with the media at the end of the game, I wonder if [the Maple Leafs] are gonna take a run at him this summer,'' Friedman said.
I mean, that is a classic case of “If you can’t beat him, sign him,” as there is. What the future holds in Toronto remains to be seen, as they have some big free agents they must make decisions on. Not many people, if any, can see them running it back with the same group, and some major changes are coming, but if Marchand does end up in Toronto, well then, that would be a much bigger gut-punch to Bruins fans than him ending up with the Red Wings.