It's early in the 2025-26 season for the Boston Bruins, but you never want to have a six-game losing streak at any point in a season. After winning their first three games, the Black and Gold lost six straight games before beating the Colorado Avalanche, of all teams, 3-2 at the TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the win, the early-season struggles are going to be used by other teams to try and pry players away from Boston, and we are not even to November yet, and the trade rumors are already flying about. On Saturday night, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet revealed that one Western Conference team is still looking to pry a center away from GM Don Sweeney.
Elliotte Friedman links Pavel Zacha to the Canucks, again
Over the offseason, two Bruins' centers, Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittlestadt, were reportedly coming up in trade discussions. One team that is looking for centers and has been linked to them is the Vancouver Canucks. Friedman said that the pursuit of them doesn't appear to be slowing down, even just weeks into a new season.
"My buddy Rick Dhaliwal reported that the Canucks had contacted the Bruins this week about Zacha, that's true,'' Friedman said. "I think it's been going on for quite some time, it's all the way back to the summer. The Canucks and Bruins have been on, off about this. Zacha is not in the last year of his deal and has another year. Teams are looking for centers, Boston doesn't have to do anything here it doesn't want to do, but this is kind of a dance that the Canucks and other teams seeing if they can pry Zacha out of (Boston). One thing about Vancouver in this case, I do not believe that they are on Zacha's no-trade list.''
It would be stunning if something were done now, but not so surprising in the long run. Zacha has a very team-friendly cap his of $4.75 million, and contending teams would love to add that in a heartbeat. Mittlestadt is a player that Boston could also move, but it might be tougher with his higher cap hit of $5.75 million. Unless the Bruins completely turn things around, the trade chatter will get louder as the season goes along.