Where does Brad Marchand rank among the all-time best trade deadline moves?

New York Times

3 hours ago

When Brad Marchand was traded from the Boston Bruins — with whom he had spent his entire NHL career — to the Florida Panthers on March 7, few could have predicted the veteran forward's impact.
That's particularly true considering his age (36 at the time) and the fact that he was sidelined with an upper-body injury when the trade happened. But the 2011 Stanley Cup champion has been huge for the Panthers in the playoffs so far.
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His goal 8:04 into double overtime in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final — his second of the night — which secured a 5-4 win for Florida and evened the series with the Edmonton Oilers at one game each, was the latest example.
On the latest episode of 'The Athletic Hockey Show,' Mark Lazerus and Max Bultman debated whether Marchand is establishing himself as one of the greatest trade deadline acquisitions in NHL history.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'The Athletic Hockey Show' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Mark: I want to talk about Brad Marchand because our producer Chris, who's great and always comes up with good ideas for the show, threw this out there this morning and it almost made my head explode. I wanted to start banging my head against the wall. He asked, 'Is Brad Marchand the greatest trade deadline acquisition ever?' Recency bias drives me nuts in general. We were watching the French Open men's final this morning, and so many people were like, 'That's the greatest match I've ever seen.' It was amazing, don't get me wrong, but I've seen several Federer-Nadal matches that were better than that. I say that to say, let's remember that other people have existed in the 100-year history of the NHL. So tell me, is Brad Marchand the greatest trade deadline acquisition ever?
Max: I don't know, because my Rolodex of trades doesn't go back that long. The pick was originally a second(-rounder), and it's now upgraded to a first because of how far they've gone. So that probably hurts the case a little bit, because that was one thing that was a big separator.
Mark: Are we factoring in the cost as well?
Max: I would, but maybe not. Don't you think we should?
Mark: If they win the Cup, who cares? If they win the Stanley Cup, it doesn't matter what the cost is; it's worth it.
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Max: Absolutely, but it's especially good if you do it for a second-round pick versus a first. The point is, it's among the best, and probably the better question, more so than Marchand specifically, would be, 'Is this the best deadline ever?' Because they also got Seth Jones, and he's been really good. The only thing I can go back to are some of the Tampa Bay trades. They got Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul in the same year; that was a fantastic deadline. They also had the year when they got Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow, which resulted in a couple of Stanley Cups. That's the one that jumps out, although I do like Marchand.
Mark: They also had the one where they gave up 37 draft picks for Tanner Jeannot, too…
Max: That one would not be so high on my list.
Mark: But in all seriousness, when Chris sent that out, I had seven names immediately pop into my mind, and I went back and I looked at their numbers. Just three years ago, let's not forget what Artturi Lehkonen did for the Colorado Avalanche. He had eight goals in 20 games, I think it was around 14 or 15 points. Just clutch, clutch, clutch, repeatedly winning, and he had a couple of overtime winners in there. I go back to 2015 and the year I covered Antoine Vermette. He had three game-winning goals in the last two rounds, including two in the Stanley Cup Final — that's pretty good. The one I really came to was 2014 and the L.A. Kings. Marián Gáborík had 14 goals in that postseason in 26 games. Two years before that, with the Kings again, Jeff Carter had eight goals and five assists in 20 games.
Go back to Marián Hossa. The Penguins didn't win in 2008, but Marián Hossa had 12 goals and 14 assists in 20 games for the Penguins that year. Now go back two years before that. Remember Dwayne Roloson? The Oilers didn't win either, but they picked up a goalie at the deadline. We never see that, and he had a .927 save percentage, taking the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final. Then I would go back to the year I was born, 1980. The quintessential and stereotypical trade-deadline glue-guy acquisition, Butch Goring, had 19 points in 21 games that year and was a huge part of four straight Stanley Cups.
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So let's just dial it back on Brad Marchand is all I'm saying. He's a great player, and narrative-wise it might be the best one. Just because it's Brad Marchand, and he makes everything more interesting, more fun and more controversial. But come man, let's dial it back a little bit.
Max: He's been at the center of a lot of this, partly because of the history, like you said. Looking back at the Leafs series, he's just been such a Leafs killer that there's been so much spotlight on him through all that. There's the great 'Dairy Queen' bit that Sportsnet has been doing that I do find very amusing, and obviously he had the huge goals in this game. Seven goals is pretty good, but when you put it statistically in the Gáborík context, that's a pretty hard one to beat.
Mark: These were just off the top of my head, too. I'm sure I'm missing completely obvious ones from the gap in my own knowledge from the 1990s and the early 2000s. This was off the top of my head, and I'm not exactly Sean McIndoe here and I don't have this encyclopedic knowledge of hockey history. So let's just dial it back. Brad Marchand has been a fabulous trade-deadline acquisition. But I'm not even sure he's been the best one for Florida this year because Seth Jones has been their No. 1 defenseman. He's playing more minutes than Gustav Forsling and he's been a terrific fit. I know he had a turnover in the last game that led to a goal, but he also scored a great goal and he's been huge for the Florida Panthers in these playoffs.
Max: That's why I say I would almost rather zoom out and say, 'Is this the best deadline ever?' But for it to be a discussion, they have to win.
You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic Hockey Show for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
(Top Photo: Michael Chisholm / NHLI via Getty Images)