Brad Marchand out long-term following surgery.

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the status of the Boston Bruins roster for the upcoming 2022 - 2023 National Hockey League regular season, and this week the Bruins made yet another announcement that added to the question marks surrounding the franchise moving forward.

On Friday, through an official press release, the Bruins announced that veteran forward Brad Marchand, arguably the franchises most recognizable player, would be out long term as a result of a rather serious offseason surgical procedure. The Bruins revealed that Marchand, who has averaged well over 30 goals a year for the Bruins over the last 7 seasons, had undergone a surgical procedure earlier in the day to repair significant damage, with the notorious Bruins agitator needing hip arthroscopy and labral repair on both of his hips.

As you might imagine such a serious procedure comes with a rather serious amount of recovery time and in the case of Marchand it will mean missing the start of next season, and likely a significant portion of it at that. The Bruins are expecting that Marchand will be out for a period of 6 months, which means that the Bruins are likely looking at a best case scenario of a return some time in November for Marchand, but perhaps even later than that.

As I've already mentioned Marchand is one of the organization's most important offensive assists and this season was no exception. Over 70 games he scored 32 goals and added another 48 assists for 80 points on the season, and he was just as good in the playoffs with 4 goals and 7 assists for 11 points over Boston's 7 game first round series loss against the Carolina Hurricanes. That's before we even get into the psychological aspect of Marchand's game as one of the best agitator's in the entire league, something that has earned him the notoriety that he has today.

It is a huge blow to the Bruins especially considering that it could coincide with the rumored retirement or departure Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, but this was of course necessary. Here's to hoping Marchand has a quick and pleasant recovery from surgery.