The Florida Panthers made far and away the biggest splash of the NHL trade deadline.
Though he won’t play for three to four more weeks, Brad Marchand joining the Panthers from the rival Boston Bruins was a signal to the rest of the league that the reigning Stanley Cup champions are going to whatever lengths they need to make a run at a repeat.
Fresh off the big acquisition, the Panthers will return to the ice Saturday to host the Buffalo Sabres in Sunrise, Fla.
Marchand, who has 21 goals and 26 assists in 61 games this season, joins the team that eliminated his Bruins from the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. A free agent after this season, the 36-year-old ranks fourth in Boston franchise history in goals scored.
The Panthers surrendered just a second-round draft pick that can become a first-rounder if the Panthers win two playoff series and Marchand appears in at least 50 percent of their playoff games. He is currently rehabbing an upper-body injury and may not make his team debut until April.
“His record speaks for itself,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito told reporters Friday night. “We are thrilled to have him aboard and will see where it goes.”
Meanwhile, the Panthers currently seem primed to go as far as Sergei Bobrovsky will guide them.
The veteran goalie is coming off a 3-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. He has won four straight starts and allowed just four goals in that span.
It was his fourth shutout of the season, and it was career win No. 423. That tied Bobrovsky with the late Tony Esposito for 10th place in the NHL’s career win list for goalies.
“It seems like it’s always another milestone for (Bobrovsky),” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “We’re extremely proud of him.”
Bobrovsky’s seven-year, $70 million contract expires after next season. Spencer Knight, Florida’s first-round pick in 2019, had been the heir apparent. But Knight was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks last Saturday.
The Panthers acquired five-time All-Star defenseman Seth Jones in that trade, but it leaves Florida’s future at goalie uncertain.
Then again, the Panthers are clearly focused on the present, and they needed a boost from Jones and eventually Marchand after it was determined that star forward Matthew Tkachuk will likely miss the rest of the regular season due to a groin injury.
So far, the loss of Tkachuk hasn’t hurt the Panthers, who have won five straight games and are favored to run that streak to six against Buffalo.
The Sabres have the worst record in the Eastern Conference with just 54 points in 61 games.
They have dropped five straight games, including a 6-5 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
“Some of the plays we made to get the lead were high-end,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “But we didn’t defend well enough on the sixth goal.”
Given Buffalo’s skid, this is set up to be the team’s 14th consecutive year without a playoff berth, which would add to what is already an NHL record for longest postseason drought. The Sabres haven’t won a playoff series since 2007.
On Friday, the Sabres traded forward Dylan Cozens, defenseman Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 second-round draft choice to the Ottawa Senators for forward Joshua Norris and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Decker.
In Norris, the Sabres are getting a speedy center who has been plagued by injuries. When healthy, he is a promising two-way player with playmaking ability.
This season, Norris has 20 goals. The 25-year-old’s only season with more goals was 2021-2022, when he scored 35.
He has been mostly healthy this season, playing 53 of Ottawa’s 61 games.
It remains to be seen how much Buffalo will miss Cozens, 24. He scored a career-high 31 goals in 2022-2023, but he had just 18 goals last season and only 11 so far in 2024-2025.
