Thursday's report about a proposed trade between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins got the usual 'not a chance' reaction when it originally came out. However, for a team that traded Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers and Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs, there are no trades that can be fully taken off the table.
Bruins reporter Jimmy Murphy reported that both the Canadiens and Calgary Flames have interest in Pavel Zacha, and he even went as far as to mention who the Bruins have been looking at on Montreal's roster. The rumored names are Oliver Kapanen, Joshua Roy, and Jayden Struble, with one name sticking out above the rest in that group.
Oliver Kapanen could be a steal
The Canadiens are in an interesting position in their rebuild. Kapanen is the type of player who the Canadiens should covet, but their success last season makes them want to continue to build on that, which they believe Zacha can help them do.
Kapanen will be a solid bottom-six center for them this season, but he isn't fully ready to make the jump into the top-six. Zacha is capable of playing the middle between Ivan Demidov and Patrik Laine, which is the main hole that Kent Hughes needs to fill.
The Canadiens also know that they have Alex Newhook on the roster to play third-line center, as well as Kirby Dach who could stay healthy this season and impress. That could even give them the chance to move Zacha to the third line and have much more depth down the lineup.
While Kapanen isn't fully ready to take the next step, he could be a great player for the Bruins in 2-3 years. He started last season in Montreal after making the team out of camp, but a roster crunch forced Montreal to loan him back to his team in Europe, which was part of his contract clause.
Kapanen had great success with Timra in Liiga, recording 35 points in 36 games. He also starred for Finland in the World Championship two years ago with six goals in eight games. Kapanen has all the tools to be a consistent NHL contributor, and also has NHL bloodlines with his uncle being Sami and his cousin being Kasperi, two players with plenty of experience in the league.
While Zacha would be a loss to the locker room, especially for David Pastrnak, it's unclear what his future holds with the Bruins after his contract ends next season. If the Bruins are serious about the rebuild, then it would only make sense to swap Zacha for a center who is six years younger and had similar upside at a young age.
If Kapanen is part of the trade package coming back, Don Sweeney should strike.