{"id":253545,"date":"2025-10-26T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253545\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:40:09","slug":"bruins-rumored-to-have-pavel-zacha-on-the-trading-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253545\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins rumored to have Pavel Zacha on the trading block"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, the most vexing \u201cX\u201d factor to arise has been Hampus Lindholm, placed on injured reserve<\/a> Sunday after he has played only six-plus periods of the club\u2019s 10 games. The club summonedJonathan Aspirot (zero NHL experience) from the Providence WannaBs in Lindholm\u2019s place.<\/p>\n

So, yes, the red emergency light is flashing. No choice but for Sweeney to act. To be blunt: Without Lindholm to pencil in as a regular in the top six, the Bruins, as presently constituted, are cooked.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say Lindholm won\u2019t be back following a brief IR respite \u2014 that\u2019s best case \u2014 but the 31-year-old Swede has evolved as a vital glue guy to the back end six-pack. If he is going to be touch-\u2019n\u2019-go for, say, the next couple of months (or, worst case, the remaining 72 regular-season games), the read here is that Sweeney will have to make a move to shore up the blue line. And soon, if he has a chance to steer this bunch out of the ditch of a second straight postseason DNQ.<\/p>\n

Not even Halloween, and it\u2019s not where we thought this was going, right? <\/p>\n

Going into the season, No. 1 on the Black & Gold worry list (with merit) was the perceived lack of goal scoring<\/a>. Thus far, the scoring has been decent. Considerably better than expected, in fact. <\/p>\n

Marco Sturm\u2019s charges boast 32 goals, fewer than only Montreal (36) and Utah (34) as of Sunday morning. The club also has 275 shots on net, third behind the Avalanche (314) and Panthers (285). Not overpowering, but more pop than expected. <\/p>\n

Zacha, to answer your question, owns only two of those 32 goals, a pair of even-strength strikes. He\u2019s been at left wing most of the time, but has seen more pivot duty of late while Sturm continues to discover whether Casey Mittelstadt can be a legit second-line something in the club\u2019s quirky offensive mosaic. <\/p>\n

Not fully trusting yet what Mittelstadt can be \u2014 or could be \u2014 keeps Sweeney from being willing to deal the dependable Zacha. Parting with an imperfect player is one thing, but it\u2019s harder if the front office believes the younger Mittelstadt is, well, more perfectly imperfect.<\/p>\n

The most likely target for the Bruins on Vancouver\u2019s back end would be Marcus Pettersson, 29, who long ago was one of Lindholm\u2019s teammates in Anaheim. He has size (6-feet-5-inches), shoots left (same as Lindholm), and logs solid minutes \u2014 an average 19:28 this season. <\/p>\n

Potential sticking point: Pettersson signed a six-year extension in the summer ($5.5m average annual value) and only can be dealt if he OK\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Despite being pointless through nine games as of Saturday night, Pettersson can chip in on the attack, having posted a career-high 4-26\u201430 with the Penguins in 2023-24. More importantly for the Bruins at this early hour of the season, he\u2019s a steady veteran hand who could help bring order to what too often has been the club\u2019s Keystone Kops defensive precinct.<\/p>\n

As for the dynamic Quinn Hughes, who is unfettered by trade restrictions, just forget about it. He\u2019ll either stay put and sign a humongous extension with the Canucks this coming offseason or force his way to New Jersey for a family reunion at the Rock with brothers Jack and Luke.<\/p>\n

Hand in hand with their oft-shoddy work in the back end, the Bruins also have to stop taking penalties. They were shorthanded three more times Saturday, increasing their total to 39 \u2014 tied for worst in the league with Calgary. If not for their superlative penalty killing (87.2 percent, seventh best as of Sunday morning), they easily could have dropped a couple more games, including Saturday when they were outshot, 33-19.<\/p>\n

Dealing away Zacha, who has another year to go with a $4.75 million average annual value, would be removing another popular veteran from the dressing room as well as a smart, versatile top-six forward from the attack. His 2-7\u20149 line is second only to fellow Czech David Pastrnak (5-8\u201413) for total points.<\/p>\n

If Zacha is out of here, it would be a classic case of moving a player because of need rather than because of want. Could he produce more? Of course. He has been prone to offensive dry spells, particularly goals, and the front office no doubt hoped he could drive a second line at center and be a perennial 60-65 point producer. (He averaged 54 and a tick under 19 goals in his first three seasons in Black & Gold.) <\/p>\n

The Bruins find themselves in do-something-now-before-it\u2019s-too-late mode. They have to get on a heater prior to Thanksgiving, or they\u2019ll be left to carve up one cold bird for the holiday. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to shore up the back end; eliminate costly, bonehead penalties; and hope to pin up a bunch of wins backed by defense and goaltending. It\u2019s a narrow path to success, one that possibly leads Zacha out of town.<\/p>\n

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, the most vexing \u201cX\u201d factor to arise has been Hampus Lindholm, placed on injured reserve Sunday after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[19859,385,99],"class_list":["post-253545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-bruins","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}