By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter/X @RyanJBosworth
The 2026-27 National Hockey League season is officially underway, and there’s no shortage of rumors surrounding the Boston Bruins. This time, there are three major storylines to highlight — and that’s Pavel Zacha, Matthew Poitras, and a big name the Bruins have reportedly been “poking around” on.
The biggest storyline surrounding the Bruins right now is definitely the Pavel Zacha saga, and whether or not he’ll be extended or traded come the March 1st trade deadline. Zacha is in the final year of a four-year, $19 million contract, and is looking to get a major pay bump after a career year last year (30-35-65 through 78 games played).
Yesterday, in an article for The Athletic, Pierre LeBrun dropped some information about Pavel Zacha and the Bruins, their contract negotiations, and how they’re actively shopping him.
“His name came up in conversations between the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets when the Bruins inquired about Kirill Marchenko,” LeBrun said in his article. As for Zacha and the Bruins on their contract negotiations, he said that “the Bruins haven’t been close in talks with his camp over the past three months on what an extension should look like. I think they had some sticker shock in June when they heard what the player might be looking for.”
Part of the reason the Bruins are hesitant to sign Zacha at his number, according to LeBrun, is because they’re worried about how the contract is going to age — they don’t want another Elias Lindholm contract on the books.
LeBrun also mentioned that, “this one could absolutely go either way over the coming months. But if the Bruins aren’t in a playoff spot closer to the March 1 trade deadline and Zacha still hasn’t signed, I think you know how it ends.”
Shifting gears, talks surrounding Matthew Poitras have picked up, as the Bruins are seemingly shopping the 22-year-old center. As reported by both Frank Seravalli and Elliotte Friedman, Boston and Edmonton were in talks for a potential trade involving Poitras.
“The Oilers were looking to move a depth (defenseman) for a depth forward… I think they were definitely interested in Poitras from Boston… one of the things I heard was the Oilers, if they were going to make a move, they were going to make the kind of move they did. I think Boston wanted more of a pick, potentially, for Poitras, and I’m not so certain Edmonton wanted to do that,” Friedman said.
Along with Friedman, it was also reported by Frank Seravalli that the Oilers were interested in Poitras. “Count the Edmonton Oilers among those who have kept tabs on Boston Bruins forward Matthew Poitras in their quest to find a right-shooting centre to anchor their fourth line,” Seravalli said.
Finally, the big name the Bruins have reportedly been poking around on is Dylan Larkin, with the latest news coming from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The Bruins, back at the end of September, reportedly made an offer for Larkin which was seemingly declined. Though, they remain diligent on trying to acquire the Detroit center.
“There are other teams that have continued to poke and say, ‘hey if he’s willing to come here, please give us a call…’ I believe (Los Angeles) and Boston have been poking around, as well. But, I don’t know where those two teams are, they’re obviously in the United States, so little bit of an edge, right now, over Montreal,” Pagnotta said.
Nothing has materialized with any of the players mentioned here, though all three are certainly situations to monitor as the season progresses, especially if the Bruins aren’t in a playoff position come the March 1st NHL trade deadline.
Leave a Reply