The Florida Panthers have been waiting patiently for Brad Marchand to make his debut with the team — and it looks like that is going to happen on Friday night when the Utah Hockey Club visits Amerant Bank Arena.

“We expect him to get into this game, we expect him to play for us,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said after the morning skate, per NHL.com's George Richards.

The bench boss continued: “We should say, we'll get him through warmups and see, but he has healed past that. We expect him to play. He's had an incredible career. He's a Stanley Cup champion, 1,000 games, 1,000 penalty minutes, lots of points. I don't want to see it all in one game. … You know how tenacious this guy is, how physical he is, how hard he plays. Then you get him in practice and you're like, ‘Oh my God, he's got hands on him.' And you start to realize how good the skill level is there.”

Shockingly acquired from the Boston Bruins ahead of the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline, Marchand has been out of the lineup since the first day of the month due to an upper-body injury. While originally labelled week-to-week, the Canadian has been skating with the team since March 11.

The 36-year-old has spent his entire career in the Bruins organization — 16 seasons and 1,090 games — and it will certainly take some getting used to watching Boston's former captain play for an Atlantic Division rival.

Marchand is slated to play on the second line alongside Sam Bennett and rookie Mackie Samoskevich, and was working with the second powerplay unit that also features Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Carter Verhaeghe and Nate Schmidt.

“It has been a lot of fun, Brad is such a good player,” Samoskevich said, per Richards. “So silky. When he has the puck, he sees you. He has eyes on the back of his head. I am excited for a future with him. He's such a great guy off the ice, too. I am enjoying it.”

The Nova Scotia native has managed 21 goals and 47 points over 61 games with Boston in 2024-25. A Stanley Cup champion in 2011, Marchand will look to help the Panthers go back-to-back when the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs kick off next month.

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Panthers battling hard for Atlantic Division crown

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Currently 43-25-3, the Panthers are tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division, and a point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bolts crushed Utah 8-0 on Thursday night, while the Leafs scored two late goals and lost to the San Jose Sharks 6-5 in a shootout.

With 11 games left in their regular-season — and a game in hand on both Toronto and Tampa Bay — Florida controls its own destiny the rest of the way.

The ideal situation for the team would be to win the division and avoid playing the Leafs or Lightning in Round 1; both clubs, along with the Panthers, got better at the trade deadline.

Puck drops between the Panthers and Utah Hockey Club just past 7:00 p.m. ET on Friday night.