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New York Times
7 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Where does Brad Marchand rank among the all-time best trade deadline moves?
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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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)
New York Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Which player has the most at stake in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final?
There is just two days to go until the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Final begins on Wednesday, as the Edmonton Oilers are set to host the defending champion Florida Panthers in Game 1. It's a rematch of last year's final, where the Panthers edged out the Oilers in seven games. But this time, Connor McDavid — last year's Conn Smythe winner despite Edmonton's loss — and his team will be out for revenge. Advertisement On the latest episode of The Athletic Hockey Show, Max Bultman and Mark Lazerus broke down which players have the most at stake in this year's Stanley Cup Final. 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. Max: All right, Laz, before we get to Rob, I need to ask you who has the most to prove in this series? Answer number one is easy, but I'll let you have it anyway. Mark: It's Connor McDavid, he's got to win his Stanley Cup. He's the greatest player we've ever seen, but he's got to win a Stanley Cup to validate everything. Max: Yeah he does, and I think he will. I don't think it has to be this year necessarily, and maybe that colors it. But it will come because it's very clear with the trajectory of the Oilers and McDavid that it's going to happen because they are checking every box. But you never know for sure, so you can't take for granted how close they were last year and how close they are now. That's part of the reason that I think they will get it done because I think they know that too. So I'm sure it's going to happen for them, but it's also in the back of everyone's mind that you just never know. Mark: It's interesting because the guy has been in the league for a decade now, and he's in his late 20s. People were talking this year about how he's already peaked because his numbers were a little down, and there were people who were almost writing him off as a has-been. It's all so absurd. Remember how long it took Alexander Ovechkin to get that Cup? Max: Yeah, there's a point total peak, but then there's a winning peak, and those are frankly two different things. Mark: Right, and the window is still wide open for him, but like you said, it's really hard to get here and they've got here two years in a row. If he misses this one, who knows what's going to happen because not everybody gets two cracks at it. You know that's weighing on him, and you saw it in those clips on the Amazon show with the way he was screaming at his team. It showed how desperate he is for this, he needs this, and he wants this. Of course, they all do, but he feels it more than most because he already knows his place in league history. You don't want to be Dan Marino, you want to be the guy who wins. Advertisement Max: He is the Conn Smythe favorite right now per our friends at BetMGM, it's even money at +100. But I think that would actually be really validating for him. Obviously, if you win the Stanley Cup that satisfies everything, but I think it makes that other trophy that he's got sitting at home right now look even better. He would probably get a lot happier looking at the two of those things when they're next to each other, and knowing he got one in a win, too. Mark: Every time he looks at that Conn Smythe from last year, it's a reminder that he didn't actually win. But if you go and you win the Cup and you win a Conn Smythe in a win, then it's like, 'Hey, look how good I am, I even won it in a loss.' It completely changes it. Max: All right, there's no doubt it's McDavid number one. But who would be your next player in this series with the most to prove? Or the most to gain if you want to take it a little differently. Mark: The player with the most to gain is Sam Bennett because if he wants to leave Florida, he could potentially get so overpaid by somebody. Sam Bennett in Florida as a second-line center is an incredible player. But if Sam Bennett is making $10 million or $11 million as your number one center, I don't think he's going to be very good at that. That's not a role for him necessarily, especially on a very different flavor of team. But if Sam Bennett goes out there and he's the leading scorer with 10 goals in these playoffs, he could win the Conn Smythe. If he goes out there and pops a couple of game-winning goals in this series, he's going to make $12 million this summer if he wants it. That's if he gets to UFA, even though he probably won't and he'll probably re-sign in Florida. But if he wanted to, in a very weak field where there's Mitch Marner and then a huge drop-off, he's the next best thing. He could get $11 million or $12 million the way it's going right now. Max: No, surely not? Even the $10 million number that's out there already feels high. Advertisement Mark: We are entering drunken sailor territory. With the way the cap is going up, we are entering the drunken sailor years of yesteryear, it's gonna happen. Max: You're going to pay him like Mikko Rantanen? Mark: I'm not, but some idiot out there is going to. Max: Through these playoffs, what we in the media have done is added $1 million in AAV per round for Sam Bennett. It started with, 'He's going to get $8 million,' and by the middle of the last round it was, 'He's going to get $10 million.' But now you're ready to have someone give him $12 million? Mark: If this guy goes out and scores 13 or 14 goals in a Cup run with the physical style he brings, some GM from the old days is going to go nuts on that. Max: I don't doubt that he's going to get a big number, but my thing with all of this is, why are we adding to it as it goes? No one's surprised by this. Maybe you're surprised to see him as the leading goal scorer, but this is who this guy is. He plays tough and you know how good he is in these games. He's been a playoff producer since before he even got to Florida. Mark: Yeah but the thing is he doesn't score like this in the regular season. He's around 20 to 25, and he had 28 once which was his career high. So he's not a big-time goal scorer, but we see this every year in the playoffs. Some guys are just well-suited to score in the postseason, and he's one of them. The guy is money, and money gets you money. Max: I said this on another show, that Sam Bennett is worth $10 million to the Florida Panthers because they know that they're playing 100 games a year or more. So he's not worth $10 million in games one through 82, but he delivers a lot of the value in games 83 onwards. So if you know you're going to be in game 83 and onwards, you can totally justify giving this guy a huge check. But the funny thing is that Florida is not even going to have to do that. If they can keep him, they're probably keeping him cheaper than anybody else could. And they're the team that can most justify giving him $10 million. Advertisement Mark: Right, it's like you. You're like an $8 million beat writer, but you get $10 million because of your podcasting skills… that's why you get that $10 million contract from The Athletic that we all know about. Max: I've got to talk with my agent if that's what you're getting. First I might need to get an agent, and then I'm going to have a talk with them about it. You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic Hockey Show for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. (Top photo of Sam Bennett and Conor McDavid: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)
