Boston Bruins player review: Pavel Zacha

The Boston Bruins have been chugging along on all cylinders this season, setting the single season wins record and securing a first round playoff matchup with the Florida Panthers. Many players have had career years this season, but I want to highlight one of them in particular today, and it’s Pavel Zacha.

Right at the start of the summer in 2022, Don Sweeney swung a trade to acquire Zacha, sending Erik Haula to the New Jersey Devils in exchange. At the time, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci’s futures were uncertain, so Zacha was seen as a potential top six center for the Bruins.

While both Bergeron and Krejci ended up returning to the Bruins, it left Zacha to play on the wing. Zacha is a former first round pick who was always frustrating to watch play in New Jersey due to his high potential, but he never seemed to fully unlock it.

This season, Zacha hit another gear and unlocked that potential. While Haula has had a fine season in New Jersey, Zacha had the most value and most production out of the two, making this trade a win. During the season, he was also extended for four years at $4.75 million annually, including a modified no trade clause for all four years.

We’ll start with plain old goals. Zacha’s career high coming into this season was 17, set during the 56 game 2020-2021 season, when Zacha played in 50 of those games. He had only hit double digit goals three times prior to this season, having 13, 17, and 15 goals. He scored 21 times this season, a convincing career high.

Zacha recorded 36 assists, also a career high by a big margin. His previous high was 24 back in 2019-2020, when he had just eight goals in 65 games. For what it’s worth, Zacha played in all 82 of the Bruins games this year. That’s pretty big in itself.

When you set career highs in goals and assists, there’s a pretty good chance that you set a career high in points. That’s what Zacha did, recording 57 points this season. His previous high was 36, set one year ago in 70 games of action.

Zacha also got the pleasure of playing with fellow Czechia players David Pastrnak and David Krejci. They had immediate chemistry together, and except for short spurts this season, they were together almost all season. For what it’s worth, if Krejci has to miss any time this postseason with an injury, Zacha and Pastrnak have been playing really well with Tyler Bertuzzi recently.

To wrap things up, Pavel Zacha had a big season in his first year in Boston. Career highs in goals, assists, points, plus/minus, and games played. He played with talented players and fellow Czechia natives, opening the door for this success. This season was successful for Zacha.