New Report Suggests Brad Marchand May Play for the Panthers Much Sooner Than Expected

After 16 years skating at TD Garden on a nightly basis, Brad Marchand was there once again on Tuesday, but this time, he was rocking the jersey of his once arch rival, taking the ice for the first time as a member of the Florida Panthers.

The surprising part of that all however was that Marchand was skating in a regular jersey as opposed to a non-contact one as he continues to come back from injury, with fans getting their hopes up that he could make his team debut much sooner than anyone expected.

After the skate, Paul Maurice downplayed Marchand's potential availability, and while he did note the team are likely to get him back at some point in the regular season, there's no clear indication that the return is imminent.

Still, the progress he is making is certainly positive, so while he's unlikely to play against his former team on Tuesday night, there's a very good chance that we see No. 63 on the ice for several games before the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The second biggest thing to note about Marchand's skate was that he was alongside Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe, despite many believing that if Matthew Tkachuk gets healthy for the post-season, he would be skating alongside Tkachuk and Sam Bennett.

With just under 20 games to go before the regular season concludes, there's plenty of time for things to change, but with Marchand trending towards a debut soon, things are looking up for the Panthers as they look to go back-to-back in 2025.