Brad Marchand shares concerning health update.

The National Hockey League may be a little less exciting than we've come to expect when the 2026-27 NHL regular season gets underway, and that's because one of the league's most polarizing players may be in the sidelines.

Over the weekend NHL star forward Brad Marchand took to social media to announce that, despite his best efforts, he had been forced to undergo offseason surgery to repair injuries that simply would not heal on their own. Although Marchand did not go into specific details regarding what type of surgical procedure he underwent, he did admit that the surgery would require some time both in terms of recovery and rehabilitation.

Now typically NHL players don't publish videos on social media to make announcements about their health, but this wasn't a typical situation. The surgery has forced Marchand to miss a major event in Slovakia called "Zee's Final Shift" which is meant to be something of a farewell for former NHL star Zdeno Chara. Chara and Marchand were of course longtime teammates on the Boston Bruins, with both men serving as captain of the Bruins franchise, and you know Marchand wouldn't miss this event unless it was absolutely neccessary.

"Had to kind of do it last minute and with the time and the recovery I'm going to need I won't be able to make it and play in the game, unfortunately," revealed Marchand. "I need to do the rehab and take care of that so I can get back on the ice soon."

The question now of course is how soon will soon be? We are very late into the summer and NHL training camps are now just weeks away. Whether or not Marchand will be ready in time for the season remains to be seen.