Don Sweeney Motivated To Make Brad Marchand ‘Lifelong Bruin’

Brad Marchand will enter the final year of his contract next season, but Bruins leadership doesn’t plan on letting the captain leave Boston.

Marchand signed an eight-year, $49 million contract that began during the 2016-17 season. The 36-year-old admitted time flew by, and he was prepared to have talks with the front office about his future with the team.

General manager Don Sweeney on Wednesday addressed Marchand’s contract at an end-of-season news conference.

“Yeah, we’re going to get to Brad. He’s learning patience as a captain as well,” Sweeney told reporters, per a Bruins transcript. “So, he has to learn there’s some ducks in a row in terms of adding to our group and how he wants to add to that, and those guys that don’t have contracts up ahead, and eventually he’ll extend here. He’ll be a lifelong Bruin, that’s what we should do. But we’ll check that box.”

Boston has other internal free agents to decide what to do with, and the Bruins will have cap space this offseason to try to retool the team following their second-round exit to the Florida Panthers.

So while Marchand might not be atop of the B’s checklist, he is on there as Boston hopes to have its captain around for many years to come.