During a recent appearance on The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro, TSN's Travis Yost discussed some potential center targets for the Montreal Canadiens. Yost brought up Boston Bruins forward Pavel Zacha first.
"Pavel Zacha would be a very interesting name," Yost said. "They've got him and Lindholm down the middle right now."
Quickly following discussing Zacha, Marinaro brought up Casey Mittelstadt as another center on Boston's roster who could be worth pursuing, which Yost agreed.
"They sure do. I think there is a bit of a reduncy there," Yost said about Boston having Zacha and Mittelstadt. "I think they no doubt about it miss the playoffs this year."
Zacha and Mittelstadt have both been the subject of trade rumors this off-season, so it is understandable that they are being viewed as possible targets for the Canadiens. If the Canadiens acquired either player, they would give their second-line center spot an upgrade, which is a real need.
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However, if the Bruins were to trade either Zacha or Mittlestadt to the Canadiens, they undoubtedly would expect a nice return. The Bruins and Canadiens are major rivals and rarely make trades. While they swapped picks at this year's NHL Entry Draft, their last trade before it was in 2001 when Boston acquired Eric Weinrich from Montreal in exchange for Patrick Traverse.
Furthermore, both Zacha and Mittelstadt have multiple years left on their contracts, so the Bruins do not necessarily need to rush a trade. This is especially so when noting that both players are coming off down years for their standards. In 82 games this past season, Zacha recorded 14 goals and 47 points. Mittelstadt, on the other hand, had 15 goals and 40 points in 81 games. This was after both players coincidentally recorded 59 points and 57 points in their two seasons before this past campaign.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what the Bruins end up doing with Zacha and Mittelstadt. While they would make sense for the Canadiens to target, they also could very well generate interest from other teams looking for help down the middle, as they are among the top centers in the rumor mill right now.
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