The Athletic Hockey Show - Panthers add Marchand in last-second deadline stunner

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

The Brad Marchand era is over in Boston as the Bruins have dealt their captain to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoe dissect the shocking deadline deal and the potential for a Tkachuk-Bennett-Marchand “super pest” line in South Florida.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. All right, everybody. Welcome to a special mini trade deadline pod edition of the athletic hockey show presented by E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. Sean McIndoo. I'm Sean Gentilly. Buddy, I think the most shocking deal of the day was saved until just after the 3 o'clock deadline. We have Brad Marchand going from Boston to Florida for some package that we are frank.

unsure of at the moment. Does it matter? I don't think it really. I don't think it really does. I was going to say, I thought I heard you scream from your living room here. Because like, this is like Brad Marchion is going to end up playing the Toronto Maple Leafs

in the first round of the playoffs. And you get to deal with that. So you were the first person I thought of. But oh my goodness. What are the odds when we woke up this morning that Miko Randen would get flipped? and it wouldn't be the most shocking deal of the day. I think it's still the biggest deal of the day.

But the Boston Bruins trading Rai Marchand and trading him in the division to a rival is stunning to me. I mean, you say the least you're going to face him in the first round. The Bruins are like two points away from facing him in the first round. But they've clearly thrown in the towel on the season here. Right. Brandon Carlo to the Leafs as well. We'll touch on that.

But I mean, they're clearly waving the white flag, big time. Totally. I think the first Boston trade of the day we saw was Charlie Coyle to Colorado. But that's not necessarily a white flag trade. They get back Casey Middlestet who has a higher ceiling. He's certainly younger of intrad. Charlie Coyle at this point, whatever. We have plenty of analysis on that deal on the site.

We're not here to talk about that. But I think that was our clue that Boston was not just moving on from the Brandon Carlos of the world in the pieces that we'd all sort of, you know, assumed that they would move out. Charlie Coyle was a name that we hadn't seen all that much. So I feel like as we go back throughout the last hour or two trying to figure out if there were breadcrumbs that we missed. I think maybe Charlie Coyle was the first one, but holy hell. Brad Marshawn is about to play playoff hockey should Paul Maurice Wish on a line with Sam Bennett and Matthew Kachuk. I said this on social. That would be the biggest scumbag line in the history of hockey. And I don't,

I say that as a compliment. Yeah, that's with all affection, right? Yeah. But those three guys, are absolute scone those are three of the five biggest scumbags in the whole league and now they're all on one team wow okay so we need to talk about brad marshon as a player in 2025 is has he declined a little bit i i think he's absolutely declined from his peak that that's what it is because brad marshon at his peak was i don't know top 15 player in the league yeah he's not he's not a very that anymore, but that's okay. A top two or three left winger in the league because that's typically the weakest position. But, yikes.

Weird. To have him go again, like, I'm not shocked that he was moved. I've been talking about this all week. And, you know, even in our little kind of behind the scenes group chats, we were saying, hey, you know, this deal could still happen. This is a big name still on the table. But in the division to the Florida Panthers. feels to me like short of them moving into Montreal,

which wouldn't have made any sense. I think this is the most shocking outcome that's possible. And the reason I say it doesn't matter what they're getting back. Clearly, if you're a Bruins fan, it matters. You want to know, who's the prospects, who are the picks? Is it somebody off the roster? But just the shock value does not change. Like there's no list of guys going back to Boston that's going to make me go,

oh, okay, so I'm not shocked anymore. That makes sense. Yeah. I'm blown away. way because Florida doesn't have you know their their prospect pulls decimated because they've gone for it every year for the last several years they don't have a first round pick until 2027 you can certainly assume wisely that this is going to that that's going to be part of whatever the final deal ends up being um but dude you said it the fact that they did it in division is

is legitimately shocking and that was the reason when it was whether it was you, whether it was other lease fans, friends who were like, boy, wouldn't it be great if, if Toronto could land Brad Marshall? I'm like, yeah, I mean, yeah, it would be great if it would be great if they could trade for Matthew Kachuk, too. Like, it's just, it's, it's never going to happen. So move on. And it's one degree removed from that by sending, by sending him to Florida. And you know what? And, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's Bruins fans who would say the Panthers, based on the last few seasons, are right there with the Leafs, maybe even above them as far.

as the teams that we love to hate. But I'll say this. If you're Don Sweeney and you've made the decision that it's not going to happen this year. We are packing and we are folding our hand. Then yes, absolutely trade these guys in the division. If that's the best offer you can get, then yes, you trade him to the Florida Panthers,

get what you can get, rather than take 80% of that to send him to, you know, who knows, what team in the Western Conference that you're not going to have to, to worry about. Get the best package you can and then worry about the rest of it later. Carlos may be a little bit tougher just because he's on the books for another couple of years. So,

in theory, you're going to run, you're going to cross paths with him over that time. But he's nowhere near the impact player. You know, Marchand could sign back in Boston this summer. Although, good luck with that because Lord knows,

you send guys to Florida. They tend to like to stay in Florida. Yeah. Nobody comes back from Florida. He's going to be down there in, you know, a day and a half, going to be, you know, 79 and sunny. I'm wearing flip-flops for the next six months. When push comes to shove, man, it's tough to get anybody out of Florida,

let alone a multi, multi, multi-millionaire and NHL player who's, you know, on the most stacked roster in the league. does this make you feel differently about the did you have the Panthers at the top of the Eastern Conference before this trade let's start there I had Washington at the top in my most recent rankings I would certainly put the Panthers ahead of them I would consider even putting the lightning ahead of them I think those are the two

the two big ones the other piece of news that affects that that I guess is breaking right now is it doesn't look like the hurricanes have done anything else, which means when we did our rant and reaction, we were saying, hey, they got these two first round picks. Let's see what they flip. Let's see what they bring in. If they haven't brought in anybody, that means Carolina takes a step back. Washington didn't really move the needle one way or another. Oh, you well, I thought you're a huge Anthony Bavillier guy.

I mean, that's, dude, we've done this before. We know now Bavillia is going to score an overtime goal and everyone's going to make fun of me for, you know, we did it last year with, I don't mean, it was Evan Rodriguez, right? It was Evan. It was Evan Rodriguez. The Leafs get a bit better, but still lose ground to Tampa and Florida. It's the battle of Florida right now, I feel. And like you say, they could, they could still face each other in the first round, which is wild.

And would be absolute fascinating to watch. And it's fun to watch if you're not a fan of either of those teams. There was a moment after the Seth Jones trade where we're digging out from the work end of that thing of all that. You're like, okay, this is it. This is Florida's big move. They push their chips to the middle of the table again because it's what they do. It's what they've done for several years. We can forget about them, right?

Right. Right. And then you look at their Puckpedia page, especially after they put Matthew Kachukh LTIR and you're like, oh, wait a second. They have a relevant amount of money and it's burning a hole in Bill Zito's pocket. So you felt like something like this was happening. They were connected to Miko Ranton and they were on the edges of that.

I saw them pop up in some in some rumors as far as that's concerned, as far as that was concerned. But that would have been less of us. Miko Rantin ending up on the Florida Panthers. at 258 today would have been less of a surprise than Brad Marshawn. I did not allow my brain to conceive of it. Yes, I'm with you. And geez, we said it on the Rantaninin reaction pod.

And it's double now. LTIR and tax-free states, baby. This is what you're going to hear about. The howls, especially from Canada and some of the other more traditional American markets, is going to be crazy. But, yeah, Panthers back in top spot, headed toward maybe Florida, Dallas.

Who knows? Oh, man. And meanwhile. What was your actual reaction? Take me through the moment where Sean Jintilly hears about this deal. So we have a, are you in that Slack channel?

This is like behind the scenes. We have a Slack channel for coordinating trade grades and whatever, all that stuff. stuff. A fake room. I'm not going to repeat what it was. A rumor made its way into the, a rumor, a bad rumor tweet made its way into the Slack channel. So everybody was scrambling from that. The Vegas Golden Knights did their cute little high tweet at 258 or whatever was everyone's scrambling scrambling there. I'll call them on right now. This is all James Myrtle's fault. That was my, that was my, that was my, that was my big takeaway. Because at like 10 to three. he slacks everybody Are we done here? I'm like this is crazy

Myrtle's the guy in Halloween 2 who looks over and says like Oh yeah Michael Myers I think he's I think he's dead This is happening because of him So I knew once he said that Whether it was some wild Pick a name, Brock Bester

Riccardo I knew something was going to happen But once again man My tiny little brain Couldn't conceive of Brathe Marnashon being the guy that moves and certainly not to the Florida F-N-Panthers. I don't know what the fake trade that tricked you guys was, but there's no way it was weirder than Brad Marshan to the Florida. Just like every good fake trade, it was very, very realistic.

It was something, it was something that you started like, oh yeah, of course. That would make sense. It involved Ricard Rakel. I actually got, in this social media world, I had the very old-school. experience of having this trade broken to me by watching deadline coverage on TSN. Mm-hmm. And it was, it was fantastic. If you get a chair, like when they announced it, just in the studio, it got like a pop,

like the John Cena Hill turn from just, just the assembled people working on that show. And yeah, I pretty much joined it at home. That's, what a deal. This is, this is, I mean, and the interesting thing is right before that, TSN was showing last year's clip of the hurdle trade breaking at the last minute. Remember, that one kind of came out of nowhere when he went to Vegas. And I'm just thinking like, oh, man, that was so, it's so fun when they drop a bomb on us. And this is more of a bomb than that, just as far as the shock factor.

As far as how it affects the teams and on the ice, and we'll see. The time will tell. But I don't know if I've enjoyed just the chemical rush. of finding out about a trade as much as this one in a long, long time. Was Frankie on screen when the news broke? No, he wasn't. Did they get out, did they get out the vaudeville cane and yank his ass away from the... They had just finished yanking him off the main desk because he had got the call up when Jeff O'Neill stormed off.

And Frankie was in the big leagues and then they took him back out. Maybe somebody heard something. Maybe there was a, maybe there was a leak. and that's why O'Dog was back on the big desk. But I don't know. I don't know if somebody knew anything. I don't know if anybody knows anything at this point. I know that nobody does.

That's the mark of a wise man. You know that you know nothing. We're going to leave you with this, though. Sean, I feel like you might not be aware of this. Guess who plays in Boston on Tuesday night? Is it Florida? It's Florida. Wow.

Brad Marchand makes his long, long awaited homecoming on Tuesday. Well, he's hurt, though. Is he going to be, is he going to be back for that? You wonder, does he just come out and wave and the crowd? Producer Jeff confirms that he's hurt, hurt, whatever. Is he hurt hurt, or is his feelings hurt? What it takes. His feelings aren't hurt as much as Bruins fans, man.

Lots of people screaming for Don Sweeney to get fired. Here's my question. In this year's playoffs, Will Brad Marchand have a single play, any one play that has as big an impact on the Florida Panthers as his missed breakaway at the end of regulation of game five with the Bruins leading the series three to one a couple years ago? Can he pass that as the most important plays in Florida Panthers history? I think the bigger possibility here is that he just plays his greatest hits against the Bruins. It's time to start looking people again, Brad. You're on the other side.

Absolutely good. And again, as I said earlier this week in anticipation of him potentially being moved, Bruins fans, I know you're ticked off about this. I'm on the Reddit right now. They're furious. Enjoy a couple of weeks at Guilfrey hating Brimard. Like, just watch him with clear eyes and be like, okay, yeah, he is a bit of a scumbag. That's all right. Brother. I think we're safe. I think the deadline. has come and gone. There's not another 7.0 on the rector scale here,

but I don't know, man. I've learned my lesson. The Panthers somehow still have room for Eric Carlson. They'll figure it out. Has anybody heard from Ricard Raquel or Brock Besser? Your favorite team's GM can't do anything, man. He can't figure this out. But somehow the Florida Panthers are still going to be able to add

Brock Bessor and Eric Carlson. And who knows who else? We don't even know what they're getting back. Doesn't matter. Bill Zito, build the statue, I say. It's pretty good at this. John McAdoo.

Thank you, my friend. Thank you. We'll talk again. Probably shortly. We will have our big, if you're listening to this, immediately after it comes out, we're going to have our big trade deadline wrap

on this very feed. Talk to you then. And again, fingers crossed and nothing crazy happens. I think we're safe.