I spoke with former San Jose Shark and Dallas Star Joe Pavelski on Monday during a media tour ahead of the 2025 American Century Championship, which takes place on July 11-13. Pavelski will be one of over 90 athletes and celebrities in attendance at the event, which will be broadcast on NBC, Peacock, and the GOLF Channel.
One of the topics I asked about was Brad Marchand’s free agency fate this coming offseason, amidst the Florida Panthers’ ongoing Stanley Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Marchand, who blew past Pavelski’s postseason goals lead since 2011 during the Panthers’ current playoff run, was traded by the Boston Bruins ahead of the trade deadline in March.
Pavelski predicted Marchand staying put with the Panthers despite some pushing a return-to-Boston narrative and others seeing free agent fits elsewhere than Florida.
“Boston, whatever the reason, they wanted to let him go. When you get to your later stage of your career, you don’t have a lot of time for any slumps. People start questioning what you have left, if your game’s leaving, and you kind of take for granted that he went through a few surgeries. And it’s showing that it seemed to take a little bit longer to get back from those. And now he’s found his track again and he’s he’s playing with all the confidence in the world, and that’s Brad Marchand out there, you know, as good as he can be,” Pavelski said.
“In my opinion, I think he stays in Florida. I think he does everything he can to stay in Florida, because at that stage in your career, and you see how much fun it is, you’re looking to be on a good team that can make a run, and you know, to ingratiate himself into that group so quickly. And having the success he’s been having, I have to imagine that the game’s a ton of fun right now. It’s kind of nice to be comfortable on the spot and have success and know what you’re going to get.
“So I could see them staying in Florida for sure. But obviously, they’re a cap team, and they’ve done a tremendous job of bringing in players. And that core showing them how it’s done, and they just keep responding, right? They’ve been in their third cup final in three years, is it’s been impressive. So we’ll see what happens, if it all fits.”
Pavelski is one of the few human beings who’ve ever lived who can guess what Marchand is thinking. The two have many parallels in their careers and played in the same era. Pavelski’s prediction holds more weight than most anyone else’s on skates.
We’ll see if Florida can finish the job and bring back their star forward to complete what’s been a stellar 2025 so far.
