{"id":566513,"date":"2026-05-04T09:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/566513\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:25:18","slug":"no-playoffs-for-panthers-but-brad-marchand-had-a-year-to-remember-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/566513\/","title":{"rendered":"No Playoffs for Panthers, But Brad Marchand Had a Year to Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 Brad Marchand<\/a> made headlines during the Florida Panthers<\/a> end-of-season meeting with the media almost two weeks ago when he said he would \u201crather miss the playoffs than lose in the Final.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Either way, Marchand surmised, \u201cyou don\u2019t win. There\u2019s one winner, and everyone else is a loser.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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Since joining the Panthers last March, he did not do a lot of losing.<\/p>\n

Before the Panthers\u2019 season started to unravel in January, it looked like Florida may be able to survive some early injuries and make a run at a three-peat as Stanley Cup champions.<\/p>\n

Yet, things did unravel and the team fell out of contention by the time Marchand and a bunch of his teammates flew to Milan for the Winter Olympics in February.<\/p>\n

And, he wishes things worked out a little different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was disappointing the way the year played out,\u2019\u2019 Marchand said. \u201cBut you definitely learn something about your group every year, regardless of how it goes. I love the mindset of the guys every single day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were fighting an uphill battle with everything the team had been going through. \u2026 It didn\u2019t go our way, and there was a ton of adversity, but I loved how we stuck together as a group.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Despite how things ended, Marchand ended up having a pretty good year.<\/p>\n

On March 7, 2025, the Panthers acquired the Boston Bruins\u2019 captain<\/a> for what turned out to be a first-round pick in 2028.<\/p>\n

Although Marchand was injured at the time of the trade, he joined the team for the final 10 games of the regular season and, well, worked to figure things out.<\/p>\n

By the time the playoffs started, it was on.<\/p>\n

Paired with Anton Lundell<\/a> and Eetu Luostarinen<\/a>, Marchand\u2019s line was one of Florida\u2019s best throughout the playoffs.<\/p>\n

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Marchand ended up being one of Florida\u2019s most clutch players (10 goals, 20 points in 23 games) as he won the Stanley Cup for just the second time in what will certainly be a Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n

A few days later, he signed a new six-year contract with the Panthers worth almost $32 million to stay with his new team.<\/p>\n

Marchand instantly became one of the most recognizable and, surprisingly even to him, popular athletes in South Florida.<\/p>\n

He even had a Blizzard named after him a Dairy Queen \u2014 at least briefly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the start of the new season and Marchand helped carry the Panthers offensively with Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> and Sasha Barkov among Florida\u2019s injured.<\/p>\n

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He impressed teammates and coaches alike with not only his work ethic, but his productivity as well.<\/p>\n

In February, he got to play for Team Canada at the Olympics for the first time in his life.<\/p>\n

Despite a nagging injury that he\u2019s going to have to deal with, perhaps even with surgery<\/a>, this offseason, it had been a pretty good year for one Brad Marchand.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere are a lot of highlights, a lot of milestones that I am very proud of and excited out,\u2019\u2019 Marchand said. \u201cBeing on the 4-Nations, winning a Cup; we didn\u2019t win gold at the Olympics, but we medaled and there\u2019s a lot to be thankful and grateful for.<\/p>\n

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\u201dYou are not going to win everything all the time, and you learn that pretty quickly in this league. But just being on the ice and being part of this team, this organization, is an honor and a pleasure. And I think that\u2019s what sometimes gets overlooked. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201dWe\u2019re very fortunate to play this game, do what we do. Play a game for a living, meet great people, travel to great places, live out a dream. Yeah, it\u2019s unfortunate we didn\u2019t win. But when you look back on the year, it was a hell of a year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

ON DECK: FLORIDA PANTHERS\u00a0OFFSEASON<\/p>\n

NHL Free Agency:\u00a0Opens July 1<\/p>\n

Panthers Development Camp:\u00a0Late June\/Early July; IcePlex, Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n

Panthers Rookie Camp\/Tournament:\u00a0Late August\/Early Sept.; Site TBA<\/p>\n

Panthers Training Camp:\u00a0Early\/Mid September; Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n

2026-27 NHL Season Opens:\u00a0Late September; Site, Opponent TBA<\/p>\n

This article: No Playoffs for Panthers, But Brad Marchand Had a Year to Remember<\/a> originally appeared on Florida Hockey Now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 Brad Marchand made headlines during the Florida Panthers end-of-season meeting with the media almost two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[245,95,254,249,62,57,5141,5,94,4,63],"class_list":["post-566513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida-panthers","tag-anton-lundell","tag-boston-bruins","tag-brad-marchand","tag-eetu-luostarinen","tag-florida","tag-florida-panthers","tag-floridapanthers","tag-hockey","tag-matthew-tkachuk","tag-nhl","tag-panthers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116515590849310768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}