Did you ever think you would see Pavel Zacha compared to Loui Eriksson? That's just the kind of coverage you can expect when you tune in to the What Chaos! podcast with Pete Blackburn, DJ Bean, and producer Shawn DePaz. Blackburn, a die-hard Boston Bruins fan, spent some time waxing poetic about this year's team, but the co-hosts warned Don Sweeney about a potential Eriksson scenario brewing.
Eriksson was an infamous piece of the Tyler Seguin trade return, but people forget his Bruins tenure ended better than it began in terms of production. He was a big contributor for the Bruins in the 2015-16 season and one of the league's top trade chips at that year's trade deadline. Instead of using him to acquire assets, Don Sweeney held on and used him as the Bruins' own rental before he hit free agency, a move that backfired spectacularly.
The Bruins lost a tiebreaker to the Detroit Red Wings on the season's final day, missed the playoffs, and then watched Eriksson sign with the Vancouver Canucks in the offseason. A popular comparison for Eriksson's value that season was Andrew Ladd, who landed the Winnipeg Jets a solid prospect and a first- and third-round pick from the Chicago Blackhawks at that deadline.
Blackburn and Bean warned that Sweeney and the Bruins could be similarly left with nothing to show for Zacha if they don't trade him before the deadline. Bean quipped that some team will pay Zacha $11 million a year, and he hopes it isn't Blackburn's favorite team. As much as Zacha is a good first-line center, I would tend to agree.
Are the Bruins actually Stanley Cup contenders this season?
The Bruins are one of the league's top teams, but sustaining that over a full 84 won't be easy. If you trade the team's first-line center while in the mix, you risk sending the wrong message to the youth, but we've already seen that during Zacha's injury: Fraser Minten can move up, and other pieces can shift around to make it work. While it'd be nice to have Zacha in a first-round playoff series, it'd be worse to keep him just for another first-round exit.
Are the Bruins going to bottom out like that 2016 team and not make the playoffs? We hope not, but five Atlantic Division teams are within five points of them, and it looks like that will hold for most of the season. If the standings are still that close at the deadline, Sweeney will have something to think about.
An even better scenario is Zacha being involved in a trade that lets the Bruins move on for him while also getting better now and in the future, for example, a Dylan Larkin or Simon Edvinsson deal. However, for now, those waters seem to be cooling off.
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