Brad Marchand Dealt To Panthers In Deadline Stunner

The NHL trade deadline has arrived and right before the 3 pm ET deadline, we got a biggie: the Boston Bruins traded their captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers.

ESPN's Emily Kaplan tweeted the news — which happened with the Bruins in Tampa for a game against the Lightning — while Marchand is Boston dealing with an injury.

While there were rumblings that this was a possibility, Kaplan said Bruins players were stunned by their captain getting dealt right before the deadline.

Once the deal was confirmed, we learned that the Bruins received a conditional 2027 second-round pick that can become a first-round pick if Marchand appears in a set amount of games through the end of the season and into the playoffs.

Yes, this means that Brad Marchand is now teammates with his ol' buddy from last postseason and 4 Nations Face-Off teammate Sam Bennett, as well as Matthew Tkachuk.

Godspeed to any team that has to play a seven-game series against the Florida Panthers.

And for the rest of the season, tune in to any Atlantic Division game you can find because this will be wild down the stretch.

This trade says so much. It says that the Panthers are deadly serious about trying to repeat this season and are going to be in a heck of a battle with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning who both loaded up at the deadline as well.

It also signals the end of the Bruins' 2011 Stanley Cup era.

Marchand was the last member of the team still on the books, and with him off to South Florida, I think it's safe to say that the Bruins are entering a rebuild.

GM Don Sweeney had to know this was coming, but I doubt he expected to see it come as soon as it did. I think once they had trouble singing Marchand to an extension, the writing was on the wall.

Speaking of which, Marchand will need a new deal at the end of this season, and he could be one of, if not the biggest names on the market come July 1 unless he cuts a new deal with the Panthers.