The most surprising rumor surrounding the Boston Bruins this summer has come out in the last 24 hours.
The Bruins are reportedly fielding calls on center Pavel Zacha.
Zacha, 29, just finished a career year this past season, scoring 30 goals and 65 points in 78 games, both figures as career highs.
Zacha's entering the final year of his contract, with a $4.75 million cap hit, which holds an 8-team no-trade clause.
It's shocking, as Zacha played a key role on both the second line and the top power-play unit, consistently one of Boston's best performers throughout the season.
The idea of Boston potentially moving Zacha only makes sense if they feel they cannot extend him beyond this year, and want to maximize a potential return.
However, barring a big trade coming back to Boston, moving Zacha would only make Boston worse in the short term.
Perhaps the logic is to get a bunch of futures, likely the equivalent of 2+ firsts and a young NHLer, then turn around and acquire a game-changer like Mathew Barzal, Dylan Larkin, or Robert Thomas.
Then, all of a sudden, Boston has a true 1C, while two of Fraser Minten, James Hagens, and Elias Lindholm take up the 2C and 3C spots.
Clearly, Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney has a ton of balls in the air with the NHL Draft just six days away.
It's part of his job to do his due diligence and field calls about Zacha, even if a trade feels incredibly unlikely at this point.
He already made his first trade of the summer, flipping Andre Gasseau to the San Jose Sharks to move up 16 slots in the fourth round of the NHL Draft, and gain an additional fifth-round pick in the process.
The rumors in the NHL only continue to grow wildly, so one can expect a potential avalanche of movement in the run-up and during the NHL Draft, with seemingly every team trying to improve right now.