Panthers Forward Brad Marchand Nominated for Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

The Florida chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) has named Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand its nominee for the 2025-26 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Since 1968, the Masterton Trophy has been awarded to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

“It’s a huge honor anytime people put your name up for something and you’re voted in for something like this,” Marchand said of being the nominee. “It obviously means a lot just to see the hard work and perseverance be recognized… I feel honored and flattered. I just really appreciate it.”

Despite the ever-growing grocery list of injuries in Sunrise, Marchand was a significant reason Florida stayed in the playoff race for as long as they did, even as he battled through his own injuries.

"We came into it knowing that Matthew [Tkachuk] would be out, but we didn't know that Aleksander Barkov would be out,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said.” And then through January 1, we're a point out, and that was, for me, a great accomplishment. [Brad] was leading our team in scoring at that point and was just the big-goal and big-game guy. But he wasn't healthy. He played a lot of nights here for us where he was not at 100%, but he pushed for as long as he could."

The 37-year-old was second on the Panthers with 27 goals and 54 points in 52 points before he was shut for the year due to a lingering lower-body injury in mid-March.

“It was tough because we had such high hopes coming into the year,” Marchand said when asked of all the Panthers injuries this season. “We know we’re an incredibly deep team. We were a contending team — we knew we belonged at the top of the league to compete for the playoffs and a Cup.”

“Day one of camp a huge piece of our team (Aleksander Barkov) went down, then in summer Chucky (Matthew Tkachuk) and Nosey (Tomas Nosek) had some big surgeries,” he continued. It just kind of slowly started to get harder and harder. And the team wanted to fight so hard to give those guys an opportunity to come back, to play, and to compete for another Cup.”

Marchand’s presence in the room and on the ice is invaluable to the Panthers, even in a lost season. Yet, his biggest impact this season wasn’t on the ice, nor was it with the Panthers. It was in his hometown, when a close friend needed it most.

In October, Marchand served as a guest hockey coach for the under-18 March and Mill Co. Hunters in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for his close friend JP MacCallum, whose 10-year-old daughter Selah died after a battle with cancer. That game served as a fundraiser for the MacCallum family.

“He’s been one of my best friends for a very, very long time — over 25 years. That was, and still is, a very heartwrenching situation and loss for everybody that knew Selah and loves the family,” Marchand said. “It was a really tough time. One of the I think mentally toughest situations I’ve ever gone through or seen people close to me go through. It’s just not something that you can relate to in any type of way.”

“I was just so grateful to the Panthers organization and everyone involved here [in Halifax]. Just kind of allowed me to go be there for the family and be able to support them and honor Selah. Not every team has that respect and would allow the players to do that. I was just grateful for it all. Those are just things that are such a bigger part of life than the game of hockey.”

All 32 local PHWA chapters select one player from the team they cover as its nominee for the Masterton. The 32 nominees will be narrowed down to three finalists.

All five of Florida’s PHWA members unanimously voted in Marchand as its nominee.