It feels safe to assume that Brad Marchand is not on the Christmas card list for Montreal Canadiens fans.
The longtime agitator and former captain of the rival Boston Bruins, Marchand has piled up 48 points (17 goals, 31 assists) in 58 career games against Montreal, his fourth-highest total against any opponent. He’s also racked up 81 penalty minutes when facing the Canadiens, more than he has against any other team.
So the concept that Habs followers would ever exchange pleasantries with the player known as “Rat” is pretty difficult to fathom. But should the impossible dream of Sidney Crosby fostering a trade to the Canadiens actually come true, Luke Fox of Sportsnet suggests that Montreal fans may have Marchand to thank.
“I wonder: Did watching close friend and Maritimes training partner Brad Marchand hoist the Stanley Cup and have a blast while dressed in something other than black and gold help open Crosby’s mind to the possibility?” Fox wrote as part of his “Quick Shifts” column on Saturday.
NHL Insider Suggests Brad Marchand Trade Opened Sidney Crosby to the Idea
Beyond the random, out-of-the-blue trade pitches that circulate through fan sites and podcasts on a rotating basis, the idea of Crosby actually playing for a team other than the Pittsburgh Penguins at any point in his career was pie-in-the-sky nonsense. The 38-year-old is entering the 21st season of his Hall of Fame career, scoring all of his 1687 points in 1352 games wearing the sweater of the team that took him with the first pick of the 2005 draft.
But with each season of playoff futility for the Penguins, the speculation over Crosby finishing his Hall of Fame career somewhere else continued to fester. Pittsburgh has not been in the postseason for three consecutive seasons, with the team’s last series win coming in 2018, feeding the narrative that Crosby would somehow, someway wind up a member of the team he followed while growing up in Nova Scotia.
And the crazy idea got a rather large dose of reality early this week.
Sidney Crosby’s Agent Fans Speculation by Suggesting a Trade is ‘Always a Possibility’
On Tuesday, The Athletic published a feature by Pierre LeBrun that addressed the Habs fan pipe dream amid speculation about Crosby’s future. Crosby said all of the right things – touting the passion of the Montreal fan base and celebrating his time with the Penguins, while acknowledging the challenges of recent seasons.
But Crosby’s agent Pat Brisson fanned the fire when he compared Crosby to NFL great Tom Brady, the longtime Patriots quarterback who finished his career with Tampa Bay, and suggested that Crosby moving elsewhere is “always a possibility.”
“It’s been three years they haven’t made the playoffs,” Brisson said. “It all depends on how Sid is going to be and how the team is going to do. I maintain the same position that I do believe that he should be playing playoff hockey every year. In my opinion.”
Besides being the landing spot that makes the most sense from a personal standpoint for Crosby, Montreal also has an impressive pool of prospects to offer the Penguins in return. In the latest episode of “The Wrap Around” podcast, Michael Augello and Jake Tye of The Hockey News agreed that any trade involving Crosby will likely send him to Montreal.
“If he’s going to go anywhere, I could see it definitely being Montreal,” Tye said.
Canadiens Fans Might Owe Brad Marchand for Sidney Crosby Dream Come True