The Florida Panthers have done it again. The latest super star to agree to stay in Sunrise is two time Stanley Cup champion Brad Marchand.
The deal was announced just around 5:00 PM, seven hours before free agency begins. While the official deal is yet to be posted, early news circulating is that it is a six-year, $32 million deal.
This deal would put the 37-year-old under contract likely until the end of his career making $5.3 million on average.
Marchand joins two of the team’s biggest stars, Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad, as the third major signing of this week for the Florida Panthers.
Marchand’s First Year With The Panthers
The Panthers are the NHL’s back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, however, that might not be the case if not for Brad Marchand’s efforts this summer.
Florida acquired the seasoned veteran from the Boston Bruins at the trade deadline. Marchand was drafted by the Bruins in 2007 and had spent every year of his career in Massachusetts.
After joining the Panthers, any speculation of the 37-year-old forward losing a step was quickly put to bed. He only appeared in ten games to round out the regular season, scoring two goals and assisting on another pair.
But when the playoffs came around, Marchand was fully unlocked. Despite not scoring in the entire first round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Marchy finished the post season with ten goals and ten assists.
Six of his ten post season goals came in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Edmonton Oilers. Two of those six goals were game winning goals, including one in double over time to save the Panthers from going down 2-0 in the series.
Marchand was the runner up for the Conn Smythe trophy, awarded to the best player in the NHL postseason.
Panthers Somehow Retain Bennett and Ekblad
The first domino to fall in the Panthers perfect free agency was young star forward Sam Bennett.
Sam Bennett, the 2025 Conn Smythe award winner, just turned 29-years-old last week. As such, he was the team’s first priority heading into free agency. The center ended up bringing home a max extension, eight-years $64 million.
After seeing the chunk of change Bennett brought home, people began to get skeptical that the back to back champs would be bale to retain their other two stars.
“The Panthers already brought in Seth Jones and have shown they can find economical defensemen to fill high-leverage roles, which makes Ekblad not as high a priority,” wrote The Athletic. “Marchand exceeded all expectations as a Panther, but he’s 37. Florida will, of course, still take a run at keeping Marchand and Ekblad, but Bennett was always priority No. 1.”
But to everybody’s surprise, they were able to secure veteran defenseman Aaron Ekblad as well.
Ekblad agreed to his deal just a few hours before the Marchand deal was announced. Ekblad took a massive home town discount, accepting a maximum eight-year extension making only $6.1 million a year.
This is $1.4 million AAV less than his last contract extension, in which he brought home two Stanley Cups on an eight-year, $60 million deal.
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