Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand gets held back by the linesman during the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images

Brad Marchand steals and destroys opponent's helmet, again showing why he's NHL's most agitating player

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Oct 18, 2025 7:58 PM ET

Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand is the NHL's biggest love-hate player. If he is your teammate or plays on the team you cheer for, you probably love him. If he does not, there is probably not a player in the NHL who is easier to hate. He showed why yet again on Saturday in the Panthers' 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

Brad Marchand took out his frustrations on opposing helmet

Midway through the second period, Marchand found himself in a back-and-forth encounter with Sabres star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.

After Dahlin caught Marchand with a cross-check to the back, knocking him to the ice, Marchand eventually chased him down, delivered a hit of his own and then proceeded to throw some punches at Dahlin as he fell to the ice. Marchand ended up getting two penalties (a two-minute minor for interference and a two-minute minor for roughing) out of the sequence.

What he did not get penalized for was what he did to Dahlin's helmet.

Following the altercation Marchand took Dahlin's helmet with him to the penalty box and then proceeded to rip the entire thing apart.

After getting into it with Rasmus Dahlin, Brad Marchand took Dahlin's helmet to the penalty box and ripped off the straps pic.twitter.com/H69NvU8nYO
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 18, 2025

Only getting a couple of minor penalties out of that exchange is a baffling look for the in-game officials, and it's also kind of surprising that he did not get anything additional for taking a piece of equipment from an opponent and basically ripping it apart. It seems like the sort of thing that could at least warrant an extra two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Either way, this is a pretty good window into the type of player Marchand is. He is an objectively fantastic player who scores like a top-line player and defends at a high level. He has been one of the best two-way wingers and most complete players in the league for much of his career.

He also does things like this, while also skating right along the line between physical and dirty (and at times completely reckless). He has been suspended and fined more than a dozen times in his career for illegal plays, he has been lectured by the league for licking opponents and now did this on Saturday.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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