Pavel Zacha wants to remain a Bruin. As his name once again pops up in trade rumors, he knows the best way to ensure he stays in Boston: Play well and help the Bruins win.
It’s a lesson that was reinforced last year when the Bruins didn’t win, and several teammates who may have seemed untouchable just a few months earlier got traded away.
“If the team's performing well, you're doing great, you don't expect that many guys being traded,” Zacha told WEEI.com on Monday. “And when you don't have a great season, you kind of look at, OK, what are the guys who could be traded? … You're always looking at it a little bit more because the chances are higher of being sellers compared to buyers before playoffs.”
As it relates to Zacha in particular, his name has surfaced in rumors on and off going back to last season. The chatter flared up again in recent weeks with multiple reports that the Vancouver Canucks, and perhaps other teams, have been talking to the Bruins about Zacha and seeing if they can “pry” him out of Boston.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun has since pushed back on some of that, reporting that while the Canucks have indeed checked on Zacha, the Bruins don’t intent to move him and instead “view him as an important part of the core as they continue to transition and re-tool their roster.”
Zacha doesn’t have much of a problem ignoring the noise himself – not being on social media helps with that – but he acknowledges he does hear about some of it from his wife and other relatives.
“Luckily I don't have any social media, so I'm more getting it sent to me from my family or my wife or somebody,” he said. “I don't really have any social media or look up my name that much. So, if it was something serious, it would happen. If it's not, you know, there’s been rumors when I was in Jersey, when I was here, even last year. So, I think that's something that's part of hockey. There's always going to be somebody who's going to say stuff. You just have to ignore it and do the best you can.
“I'm so excited to be a part of the Bruins organization, and I haven't heard anything from anybody there. So, I just think, you know, rumors are always going to be there, and I just have to keep playing and doing my thing here.”
Zacha has certainly been doing his thing so far this season. Through 14 games, he’s tied for the team lead in assists with 10 and is second in points with 12, trailing only fellow Czech David Pastrnak. He’s playing in all situations as a top penalty-killer and first-unit power-play guy for a team that now ranks in the top half of the NHL on both the PK and the PP.
Zacha started the season playing left wing on the second line, with Casey Mittelstadt at center and Viktor Arvidsson at right wing. Things weren’t really clicking out of the gate, but they started to once new coach Marco Sturm flipped Zacha to the middle and Mittelstadt to the wing after healthy-scratching Mittelstadt on Oct. 19.
In seven games since then, that trio has arguably been the Bruins’ best line 5-on-5. In 66 minutes together, the Bruins have outscored opponents 4-2 with a 54.7% Corsi and 61.6% expected goals share, while earning enough trust from Sturm to get matched up against opponents’ top lines. They scored both of the Bruins’ goals in Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I think we started to understand each other,” Zacha said of his line’s improved play. “You need a couple of games with new players, and I think we're starting to click. I think we're a good offensive line playing important minutes, and I think we’re starting to show we can play that against the top lines. … But we also know how to play a two-way game, which is important. So, I think it’s just starting to come together and we're more comfortable playing every game and every practice with each other.”
Zacha’s performance this season, his versatility, and his affordable $4.75 million contract make him a valuable player – to both the Bruins and any other team that might want to pursue a trade. If it were up to Zacha, he’d be staying put for the foreseeable future. Whether he’ll get to could be decided by how the next few months go for Boston.