Teams Pushing To Acquire Pavel Zacha From Bruins

The Boston Bruins don't necessarily want to trade Pavel Zacha, but it seems like other teams around the league have a different idea. According to James Murphy, "the NHL trade chatter surrounding him (Zacha) has not come from the Bruins, but rather the teams interested in him."

Zacha will be playing in the top-6 for the Bruins and had a solid season in 2024-25 for the team despite how bad the season went overall. Boston isn't very strong up the middle, so trading away Zacha without something similar in value coming back doesn't make much sense. Casey Mittelstadt is an option to play center as well, but his development from playing on the Buffalo Sabres to the Colorado Avalanche to Boston hasn't gone as planned.

Zacha isn't a top tier second line center, but he is good enough to hold his own and do a good job. The Bruins don't look that strong all around, but if they aren't in contention, which I have a good feeling they will be on the outside of the playoff picture, contending teams will push even harder to acquire Zacha who has two years left at a very fair $4.75 million AAV.

Zacha put up 14 goals and 47 points while playing with less than top-6 linemates. He logged over 19 minutes per game of hard minutes, had over 2.5 minutes per game on the power play and over 1:45 of ice time on the penalty kill per game. The 28-year-old also finished the season with over 50% for Corsi For % and expected Goals For %. There is a reason why teams are very interested in him before the season.

It is in the Bruins' hands whether they keep Zacha through the final two years of his contract and they are better while he is on the team, but I don't think Boston is in a very good place other than a few top tier players. The surrounding cast has to be built much better than what this offseason churned out for the Bruins.