{"id":748386,"date":"2026-06-20T07:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T07:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748386\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T07:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T07:33:11","slug":"bruins-exploring-their-options-with-pavel-zacha-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748386\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins Exploring Their Options With Pavel Zacha \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past season was a very nice one for Bruins center Pavel Zacha<\/a>.\u00a0 Thought to be in some trade speculation over the summer, a move never materialized.\u00a0 That certainly worked out well for both sides.\u00a0 Zacha had a career year, scoring 30 goals and 35 assists in 78 games despite his ice time dropping by more than two minutes per night.<\/p>\n

The timing of that offensive performance was great for Zacha as he\u2019s set to enter the final year of his contract next summer.\u00a0 As a result, he\u2019s eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1st.\u00a0 Given how things went in 2025-26, it would be logical to think that Boston\u2019s focus right now would be getting the 29-year-old signed to a contract extension.<\/p>\n

However, it appears that isn\u2019t entirely the case.\u00a0 In his latest column for The Athletic<\/a>, Pierre LeBrun reports that while Boston\u2019s top priority this summer is to sign Zacha to a contract extension, they\u2019re also listening to overtures from other teams about trying to acquire the veteran.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that listening to offers isn\u2019t exactly the same thing as actively shopping Zacha\u2019s services.\u00a0 But given his value to them and their need for an impact middleman, it\u2019s interesting that they aren\u2019t shutting down inquiries either.\u00a0 Of course, it could just be a case of seeing if a too-good-to-be-true offer was to come in.<\/p>\n

On the extension front, Zacha certainly has a strong case for a big raise.\u00a0 Since being acquired from New Jersey four summers ago, he has gone from being an inconsistent bottom-six pivot to a pretty consistent top-six piece.\u00a0 He has notched at least 47 points in each of his four years with the Bruins while only missing a total of four games due to injuries.\u00a0 He has played at a 58-point pace over a full season overall during his tenure with the team.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s legitimate second-line production which bodes extremely well for Zacha.\u00a0 With impactful centers being in extremely high demand, teams are willing to pay up to get one.\u00a0 AFP Analytics projects<\/a> a five-year deal for Zacha, one that would cost a little more than $7.3MM per season.\u00a0 That would put him a little below Elias Lindholm<\/a> ($7.75MM) but there\u2019s certainly a case to make that Zacha should be worth more given Lindholm\u2019s struggles offensively since joining the Bruins.<\/p>\n

Is that a price Boston would want to pay?\u00a0 Perhaps not but given the openness to hear out other offers, GM Don Sweeney is at least considering the possibility of not paying it even though the preference is to work out an extension.\u00a0 Accordingly, he could be someone to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past season was a very nice one for Bruins center Pavel Zacha.\u00a0 Thought to be in some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,5789,575,179060,85],"class_list":["post-748386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boston-bruins","tag-nhl","tag-pavel-zacha","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}