Joined: Jul. 2021
Posts: 1,052
Likes: 548
I’m surprised they signed him for only one year with him eligible to become a UFA at the end of it. I assumed the main reason they traded the lower-priced Haula for him was that Haula was only a year away from being a UFA, so they saw Zacha as somebody they could get more years out of. I guess they may think he has more potential upside than Haula even for the coming season because of his age, but this contract makes me wonder if they acquired him only as insurance in case Bergeron and/or Krejci didn’t come back, and now they’re just thinking of him as a stopgap until Marchand comes back. They’re over the cap if they don’t have somebody on LTIR, so if they need to dump someone to make room for Marchand, this contract has a better chance of being tradeable than if they had signed him multi-year. Easy come, easy go.