Brad Marchand. Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Brad Marchand directly addresses joining the Maple Leafs on social media

Originally posted on House of Hockey | By Jack Sutherland | Last updated Jun 20, 2025 10:44 PM ET

Brad Marchand, who just helped the Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions, directly addressed the potential joining of the Maple Leafs this summer.

Former Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand has just helped the Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions, turning in an amazing six-goal performance in the Stanley Cup Final by itself.

Marchand can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and because of his strong postseason showing, he'll be one of the hotter commodities on the free-agent market.

One of the teams that he's been linked to is divisional foe Toronto Maple Leafs, whom he helped the Panthers defeat in another painful seven-game series loss; he scored while adding a pair of assists in the deciding seventh game.

Marchand directly addressed the potential of joining the Leafs on social media in a recent post that left fans wondering if he was being serious or if he was just trolling them.

Not long after their latest playoff collapse, general manager Brad Treliving spoke about the need to change up the DNA of the Maple Leafs.

"There's some DNA that has to change in our team. If you keep getting to the same result, there's some DNA that needs to change. That's on me going forward. We've now started the planning, and it's early, for putting a team together for 2025-26."

Adding a player like Marchand, who has beaten the Maple Leafs in the playoffs five times now during his career, would represent the kind of DNA change that Treliving alluded to.

The Maple Leafs are also almost certainly going to lose a major part of their forward units, as Mitch Marner appears as good as gone on the open market.

This article first appeared on House of Hockey and was syndicated with permission.

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