The Vancouver Canucks are reportedly calling the Boston Bruins about the availability of Pavel Zacha amid the injury news of Filip Chytil.
On the latest edition of ‘Saturday Headlines’ with Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet, there were a couple of points that sparked up some trade chatter.
This topic included the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins center, Pavel Zacha. According to Friedman, with the help of The Athletic’s Rick Dhaliwal, the Canucks have been calling on Zacha for quite some time.
“The Canucks had contacted the Bruins this week about Zacha,” Friedman said on the broadcast.
“I think it’s all the way going back to the summer, the Canucks and Bruins have been on-off about this.”
Zacha is an attractive trade candidate, considering his position, style of play, and contract.
The 28-year-old center is a versatile player who can also play on the wing and in all situations. He has the third-most time on ice on the penalty kill among Bruins forwards, and third on the team in power play ice time, according to naturalstattrick.com.
So far this season, Zacha has two goals and seven assists for nine points in 10 appearances, second on the team in scoring. In addition, he is one of four players on the Bruins roster who have a positive plus-minus rating at plus-two.
With all that he can do on the ice, the former first-round pick only costs $4.75 million against the salary cap, which expires after the season following this campaign.
Speaking of Zacha’s contract, he controls an eight-team no-trade list. However, Friedman believes that the Canucks are not one of those teams.
A potential addition of Zacha for Vancouver could fill a hole on the team’s second line. Filip Chytil, whom the Canucks acquired in the J.T. Miller trade from the New York Rangers, is out with an injury.
To further that fact, Chytil has dealt with injuries throughout his career. The 26-year-old center has never played more than 75 games in a season, which is the most he’s recorded dating back to the 2018-19 season, his sophomore year.
It’s also worth noting that Vancouver recently received center Lukas Reichel in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, which could be a potential solution for the team’s 2C spot.
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