Trade between two archrivals gains steam after latest reports: Boston and Montreal
Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
Montreal needs a center and Boston has one to move.
The swap fans keep sketching, Zacha for Dach, is the one that makes the least sense but somehow is gaining traction.
Elliotte Friedman floated the Canadiens as a possible Pavel Zacha suitor before sources pushed back on the idea, although Friedman still stands by his tell.
Re Pavel Zacha/Bruins: "I heard that there were some conversations, I kinda thought that one of them might be Montreal, but I had a couple people deny that, but it seemed to make sense."
- Elliotte Friedman
- Elliotte Friedman
The pushback was the other side of the tell. These two teams want opposite things, and the calendar proves it.
Pavel Zacha has one year left at a $4.75 million cap hit and becomes a free agent in 2027. Don Sweeney has said his goal is to extend him, not rent him out.
Kirby Dach is the mirror image. The Canadiens gave him a rare two-way qualifying offer, then watched him file for arbitration rather than accept it.
The two-way offer already answered this
A two-way qualifying offer is a front office saying, quietly, that it will not guarantee a player an NHL salary.
Montreal issued one to Dach because he has played 154 of a possible 328 games as a Canadien.
You cannot headline a package for a coveted 30-goal center with a player your own team just declined to fully insure.
Dach's value is real to a reclamation project, not to a Bruins club chasing a top-six center.
Kent Hughes will not pay the rental tax
Zacha is exactly the second-line pivot Montreal has hunted since Nick Suzuki needed help down the middle.
The problem is the bill.
Acquiring Zacha means surrendering assets for one guaranteed year, then paying seven to eight million to keep him.
Hughes has spent this summer refusing to overpay, which is the whole reason Dach got a two-way offer in the first place.
Trade Dach first, chase Zacha second, and Montreal still lands on the same wall: a rental price for a player Boston would rather sign itself.
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