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Bruins, Panthers Updated Rosters, NHL Salary Cap After Brad Marchand Trade

Julia StumbaughMar 7, 2025

The Florida Panthers are hoping the addition of Brad Marchand will take them one step closer to a second straight Stanley Cup.

The Panthers acquired Marchand from the Boston Bruins at the Friday trade deadline.

The Bruins retained 50 percent of Marchand's salary as part of the trade.

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The Bruins gain a first-round pick only if Marchand, who is currently sidelined on a week-to-week basis, plays in at least half of the Panthers' playoff games through two rounds and Florida makes it to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Panthers gained $9.5 million in cap space by placing Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve earlier this week.

The Bruins' salary retention means that Marchand will take up $3.06 million of that space.

The Panthers are left with just over $1 million in LTIR space after the trade, per PuckPedia:

The Bruins will meanwhile clear out $3.06 million in salary, while opening up long-term cap space by not extending Marchand.

According to ESPN's Emily Kaplan, negotiations between Marchand and the Bruins broke down because the parties "reached a stalemate over term," and that Boston was "hesitant to give Marchand a two-year contract."

The Bruins are currently projected to have $24.46 million in cap space next season, per PuckPedia.

The Bruins also sent out players including Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic, while the Panthers already added Seth Jones and Vitek Vanecek ahead of the deadline.

Here's a look at both team's projected lineups following a busy trade deadline.


Bruins projected lines (h/t Daily Faceoff)

FORWARDS

Morgan Geekie - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak

Riley Tufte - Casey Mittelstadt - Elias Lindholm

Cole Koepke - Matthew Poitras - Vinni Lettieri

John Beecher - Marat Khusnutdinov - Mark Kastelic

DEFENSEMEN

Nikita Zadorov / Andrew Peeke

Mason Lohrei / Parker Wotherspoon

Ian Mitchell / Henri Jokiharju

GOALTENDERS

Jeremy Swayman

Joonas Korpisalo

IR: Hampus Lindholm, Charlie McAvoy


Panthers projected lines (h/t Daily Faceoff)

FORWARDS

The Panthers have now loaded up for a playoff run, while the Bruins are waving a proverbial white flag in the race for one of the East's two Wild Card spots.

Carter Verhaeghe - Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart

Mackie Samoskevich - Sam Bennett - Evan Rodrigues

Eetu Luostarinen - Anton Lundell - Jesper Boqvist

A.J. Greer - Tomas Nosek - Jonah Gadjovich

DEFENSEMEN

Gustav Forsling / Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola / Seth Jones

Nate Schmidt / Dmitry Kulikov

GOALTENDERS

Sergei Bobrovsky

Vitek Vanecek

IR: Matthew Tkachuk

Injured: Brad Marchand


The Panthers don't have the cap space to bring Tkachuk back before the end of the regular season. But Florida will hope to have him back in time for the playoffs, where he and Marchand could potentially slot in on either side of Bennett on the Cats' second line.

Getting Tkachuk and Marchand back, in addition to the pickups of players like Jones and Vanecek, will mean the Panthers have successfully loaded up for a playoff run. The Bruins are meanwhile waving a proverbial white flag in the race for the East's two Wild Card spots.

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