Brad Marchand is enjoying quite a campaign.
The Boston Bruins left wing has scored 34 goals already this season, which is six better than his previous career high and ties him for fifth in the NHL with Steven Stamkos and Vladimir Tarasenko. With seven games remaining on the schedule, he’s also just a single point back of the best total of his career.
The question for Boston now is what’s driving Marchand’s emergence as a high-end NHL goal scorer.
He has just one season remaining on his current contract, a four-year pact at the bargain cap hit of $4.5 million. The Bruins need to decide if this season was a pleasant aberration, a one-off unlikely to be repeated, or whether it represents the evolution of Marchand into a premier scorer.
That’s the question we’re going to tackle here.
It isn’t an easy one to answer because both interpretations are plausible. Players have evolved mid-career before, with a prime example being Joe Pavelski, who sits one goal ahead of Marchand this season.
As ex-Bruin Gregory Campbell t ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis