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 [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/vancouver-canucks] and Boston Bruins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/boston-bruins] center, Pavel Zacha. According to Friedman, with the help of The Athletic’s Rick Dhaliwal [https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/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 [https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/saturday-headlines-latest-on-kadri-zacha-woll/]. “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 [https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20252026&thruseason=20252026&stype=2&sit=pp&score=all&stdoi=oi&rate=y&team=BOS&pos=S&loc=B&toi=0&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL]. 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 [https://www.nhl.com/bruins/stats] on the Bruins roster who have a positive plus-minus rating at plus-two. Pavel Zacha (Bob Frid-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/529062b9-280d-40c2-a197-e78a47d05e2f.jpeg] Pavel Zacha (Bob Frid-Imagn Images) With all that he can do on the ice, the former first-round pick only costs $4.75 million against the salary cap [https://puckpedia.com/player/pavel-zacha], 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 [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers], is out with an injury. To further that fact, Chytil has dealt with injuries [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/vancouver-canucks/latest-news/canucks-patrik-allvin-provides-injury-updates-on-chytil-blueger-forbort-lekkerimaki] 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 [https://thehockeynews.com/news/latest-news/canucks-acquire-lukas-reichel-from-blackhawks] with the Chicago Blackhawks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks] on Friday, which could be a potential solution for the team’s 2C spot. Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/f954c8df-75af-48ba-8f9f-eb65fee8796e.jpeg] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
