The Boston Bruins hit the ice Tuesday at Warrior Ice Arena for their first captains practice of the new season, but the captain himself wasn’t actually on the ice during practice.
No, Brad Marchand wasn’t shirking any of his duties or anything. The 36-year-old winger skated on his own before the rest of his teammates and revealed after practice that he is recovering from not one, but three offseason surgeries.
“I had three surgeries this summer,” Marchand told reporters. “So, I didn’t do a whole lot of training until about two weeks ago. I’m just kind of getting back into it. … The goal is to try to be ready for camp, or if not, very shortly after. But I’m just kind of getting back into the swing of things now.”
Marchand said he played through a torn tendon in his elbow pretty much all of last season before having it repaired surgically this offseason. He also had groin surgery and underwent an abdominal procedure to take care of a sports hernia. Both of those injuries occurred late in the season.
Marchand is entering the final season of an eight-year, $49 million contract he signed back in 2016. While the Bruins have more pressing contract matters – namely, Jeremy Swayman – Marchand’s future will need to be addressed at some point.
For his part, Marchand will not be the one addressing it publicly, as he said he has no intention of talking about contract negotiations through the media.
“I won’t ever talk about contract stuff in the media,” Marchand said. “...Whatever goes on will stay internal between Sweens [general manager Don Sweeney] and our group, and I’ll leave it at that. I think there’s enough respect between the two sides that we can deal with it and leave it at that.”
Marchand took exception to a recent article from The Hockey News that speculated about his future, making it clear that nothing in the article came from him or his agent. The article, written by Ken Campbell, was pretty harmless all things considered, but it seemed to suggest that Marchand might want to get paid market value rather than a hometown discount after seeing teammates Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak and likely Jeremy Swayman get bigger contracts than him.
“I saw a report come out the other day, I think it was The Hockey News, and I don’t know where he’s getting his information, but it wasn’t from our side,” Marchand said. “We’re not going to talk about it.”
Speaking of Swayman, the Bruins goalie was on the ice for Tuesday’s practice and appeared to be his usual jovial self. Now, that doesn’t mean a whole lot when it comes to the state of contract talks. Swayman has been skating and working out at Warrior with teammates and Bruins staff all summer, so this was nothing new. Captains practices aren’t an official team activity; those don’t begin until Day 1 of training camp on Sept. 18.
The latest report or rumor on Swayman came courtesy of Ryan Whitney on Tuesday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets. Whitney cited a source that told him the Bruins’ current offer to Swayman is four years at $6.2 million per year, while Swayman’s ask is “the McAvoy contract” (eight years, $9.5 million AAV). The second part of that pretty much lines up with Rich Keefe’s scoop on WEEI last week that Swayman is looking for $10 million per year.
Whitney added that he has heard that the Bruins have not engaged in discussions with Swayman or his agent in three weeks.
Obviously, that would be a bit concerning if true. Everyone on all sides has said publicly that they expect to get a deal done, but it certainly seems like there is still some real work to do, especially if there’s going to be any chance of this getting finalized before the start of training camp.
In addition to Swayman, here’s the list of players I was able to identify on the ice Tuesday: Joonas Korpisalo, Brandon Bussi, Charlie McAvoy, Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Elias Lindholm, Trent Frederic, Matt Poitras, Johnny Beecher, Justin Brazeau, Mason Lohrei, Andrew Peeke, Georgii Merkulov, Riley Duran, Marc McLaughlin, Trevor Kuntar, Patrick Brown, Joey Abate, Frederic Brunet, Mike Callahan, Ryan Mast, Drew Bavaro
There were several players without numbers that I was not able to definitively identify, so that’s a slightly incomplete list. Reporters do not get an official roster for captains practices.