While the Bruins dealing Brad Marchand on Friday came as a surprise, it wasn't necessarily a complete shock.
After all, we’d heard for a while that the Bruins and Marchand hadn't been able to reach an agreement on a new contract, and when a player is a pending UFA and hasn’t signed a new deal, a trade is always possible.
That gap in contract talks appears to be what led the Bruins to make their move at the deadline, at least according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet (Canada) — who was also the first to announce that the trade was happening on Friday.