The Bruins are now Brad Marchand’s team.
Boston on Wednesday revealed the veteran winger is the club’s next captain, as Marchand takes the torch from longtime friend and linemate Patrice Bergeron, who retired this summer.
It’s certainly a tough decision to argue at this point in Marchand’s career. He is the longest-tenured player on the roster following the offseason departures of Bergeron and David Krejci, who also retired. Marchand broke into the league during the 2009-10 and was riding shotgun with Bergeron a year later when the Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup.
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Marchand’s production speaks for itself. With another big season, he could end the 2023-24 season with 400 goals and 500 career assists, production that might also earn him a fifth career All-Star nod. However, Marchand is getting this honor in large part because of his evolution as a leader on and off the ice. He has done well to curb some of his toe-the-line antics that have earned him his share of supplemental discipline, and he has done so while taking on a greater role in the Boston dressing room as a vocal leader.
Of course, the leadership responsibilities as the team’s 27th captain don’t fall solely on Marchand. Even with the departure of Bergeron and Krejci, the Bruins have a good core of veteran players, and the club has been very clear that it leans on a “leadership group” and not just the player wearing the “C” on their jersey.
Beginning with training camp this week, though, that group will be led by Marchand.
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Featured image via Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports Images
