The Vancouver Canucks got the ball rolling with their first significant move this season, landing Lukas Reichel from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft last week.
But the Canucks are far from done. Vancouver is looking to continue adding to its roster. In particular, the club is in hot pursuit of a center. While that’s nothing new, the sense of urgency increased when Filip Chytil went down.
According to several insiders, most notably Elliotte Friedman, the Canucks are looking to get an experienced center from the Boston Bruins. That center is Pavel Zacha.
In the October 25 edition of Saturday Headlines, Friedman delved into the Canucks’ search for a center, in which he declared:
“The Canucks contacted the Bruins this week about Zacha. That’s true, and that’s been going on for quite some time. I think it’s going all the way back to the summer. The Canucks and Bruins have been on/off about this.”
The comments point toward the Canucks being serious about bolstering their forward depth. Zacha would fit that bill, immediately sliding in behind Elias Pettersson. However, the Canucks could look into pushing Zacha to their top line, given Pettersson’s relatively inconsistent play.
But as Friedman clarified, Zacha has an eight-team no-trade clause. So, it would be a matter of figuring out if the Canucks are on Zacha’s list.
Canucks also looking at another Bruins center
Zacha is not the only Bruins player the Canucks are reportedly checking in on. According to the Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, the Canucks have also followed up on Casey Mittelstadt. Like Zacha, the Bruins have reportedly shopped Mittelstadt around. However, there hasn’t been much interest in Mittelstadt at the moment.
Pagnotta was quoted in an October 25 piece, stating:
“There are players they are exploring on and I would imagine that Boston would be a club that Allvin and (President Jim) Rutherford are going to at least poke on to see what the price tag would be for either of those players.”
Pagnotta concluded:
“From the Canucks perspective, those are two players that would appeal.”
So, the prevailing wisdom would appear to be that the Canucks and Bruins could be poised to make something happen. While there is no trade imminent, the Canucks have a growing sense of urgency due to their injury situation.
As such, it might only be a matter of time before a deal comes to fruition.