The Boston Bruins have made a move but it isn’t an unrestricted free agent coming to town. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the Bruins have acquired Pavel Zacha from the New Jersey Devils. Zacha is a pending restricted free agent, and eligible for salary arbitration after his current three-year, $6.75MM (total) contract expires. Erik Haula is headed back the other way.
With another double-digit goal season under his belt–Zacha scored 15 goals this season after 17 in 2020-21–that potential arbitration award would have been rather pricey, and any multi-year deal would have been buying out UFA years.
Haula, on the other hand, has just one year remaining on his contract and carries a cap hit of $2.375MM. The Devils, who are in the mix for one (or more) of the biggest free agents available, will now have more money and more roster flexibility to use.
Boston, meanwhile, has now found another young(ish) forward to slot into the middle-six that can provide some secondary scoring and a strong defensive presence. Zacha does have plenty of experience at center, though he was deployed as a winger for much of this season.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that he hails from Czechia, just like David Pastrnak and the returning David Krejci. While that doesn’t mean he’ll find a new level, it will at least present some familiarity as he makes the transition to a new team.
Now the question is how much Zacha will cost for the Bruins, and where they find the cap space for all of the pending contracts. Patrice Bergeron and Krejci are both expected to finalize deals in the coming days, meaning this will only further limit the cap space available for general manager Don Sweeney today.
A better option than Krecji.
This could mean Coyle is on the ropes…
Coyle is a good third line center not a second.
Good get
So he finally picks a good FA and trades him for a hope and a prayer well they still have all the other garbage he signed last year
Taylor Hall should be on the move…not great at all…A former MVP…wow
I’m glad Zacha is a big guy, Haula was only 6′ 0″ 195 lbs and Zacha is 6′ 3″ 210 lbs. The Bruins definitely need size and toughness. Clearing cap space is the next step in this free agent period.
In my opinion, the Bruins need to trade Grzelcyk, Smith, Wagner, Foligno(or buy him out) and Reilly(depending on how training camp goes for the the rest of the defensemen). In saying all that, Sweeney signed Kai Wissmann a 25 year old, 6′ 4″ 207 lbs right shot defensemen from Germany. Now with McAvoy out until November, this at the very least adds depth on the right side of the defense. The defensive pairings might look like this (see below).
Lindholm 6’4″ Carlo 6’6″
Forbort 6’4″ Clifton 5’11”
Zboril 6’1″ Lewington 6’2″
Wolff 6’5″ Wissmann? 6’4″
Ahcan 5’8″ Brown 6’5″
Berglund 6’1″
I’m believing even with McAvoy out until November the team is going to pick up the slack defensively. I have a feeling Wissmann is going to be a surprise and make the team out of training camp. Oh yeah, don’t count out Lohrei, Mast and this year’s 7th round pick Jackson Edward. Sweeney let’s getter done!
Brown is gone, signed with Arizona
So if the Bruins don’t sign him will they get a draft pick if another team does?