Marchand is not the only potential next captain; there is also 25-year-old defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who has been regarded as a captain-in-waiting since early in his career. But Marchand brings the institutional knowledge and the experience with Chara and Bergeron to serve as a bridge.
But whether or not that happens, Marchand, along with the rest of the Bruins, will have to figure out how to navigate life and hockey in a post-Bergeron world.
"Obviously there's been stints without [Bergeron] throughout the years, where he's been hurt or whatever, but his presence around the room and in the gym, on the ice, you can't replace that," Marchand said. "It'll be a lot different this year."
Marchand -- and others -- will have to fill that void.
"To lose them both in the same year, it's a big loss for our group," he said. "But it gives other guys the opportunity to step up, start carving a different path for themselves, gaining more leadership, carrying more minutes, carrying more of the load."
Especially at the start of the season, while the rest of the team is settling in. Especially at captains' practices.
"You definitely feel that burden, or responsibility," Marchand said. "It comes with the territory with being around for a while. It just kind of how things go, the torch is passed down. When it's time to lead the way, you've got to do it."
He mentioned all the things that went on behind the scenes with Bergeron, the managing of people, the reaching out, the conversations that will be shared among players in the locker room this season.
"One of the big things, something he talked a lot about was gratitude, accountability, treating every day like it's a gift," Marchand said. "Being thankful to be here and have the opportunity to play in this organization, for this team."
It's something Marchand wants to continue.
Boston has also brought in a slew of veterans this season, including eight-year Bruins veteran Milan Lucic, who played the previous eight seasons elsewhere, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and forward James van Riemsdyk. They will help.
But no one may be more important than Marchand.
"He's always had that leadership, where his work ethic is just off the charts," center Charlie Coyle said. "Every time he's in the gym, watching him there behind closed doors, on the ice of course, and then in the locker room the way he speaks up when he needs to.
"He's always brought that, even with Chara and Bergeron and all these guys. He's always been there and done his part very well, and he's only gotten better at it too."
For the forward, it will be a transition on the ice as well, losing the center he's played beside for the vast majority of his career. He will have to learn how to have the same success with Coyle or Pavel Zacha, now the Bruins' top two centers.
Helping that will be his recovery from the double hip surgery he had at the end of the 2021-22 season, something that hampered him nearly all of last season.
"I didn't really have a time to catch my strength and conditioning back up," Marchand said. "So, that's what I was excited about this summer is having a year to kind of get back to the condition I was in before. If you miss six months, you're behind, no matter who you are. I didn't feel normal until probably March, which is expected from the surgery.
"I feel really good now."
Marchand, who finished last season with 67 points (21 goals, 46 assists) in 73 games, a down year for him even with Boston's success. He will be relied upon to provide more offense, more goals, more leadership. More everything.
But he won't need to do it alone.
"If I can learn one thing -- or us as the leadership group can learn -- from what the guys in the past have done is they did it as a group," Marchand said. "They were so good at bringing a group of guys together, having everyone believe in the same goal.
"There's no team in any sport that can have one guy dictate what a team does, but it's how they're able to bring a group together. That's what our captains in the past have done."
