If Boston does that, the complaints some fans have about Sweeney will be justified. They aren’t trading Zacha on that contract especially for two pending free agents.

I have zero interest in adding another highly paid defenseman. They need to redistribute their salaries to more forwards. Hanifin is good, but not what they need.

Just sign Backlund. You aren’t going to get what you think for him because of his age and his contract coupled with the cap situation around the league, Reward him with some term and let him take the C.

Canucks take that and run

Avs don’t have nearly enough cap space to do that

I wouldn't trade Zacha for Backlund straight up because of the Bruins timeline and the players respective ages/contracts, and I wouldn't trade Grz/Lysell/1st for Hanafin because the Bruins lack top 6 F talent while they are pretty well-stocked on D. Definite no from Boston.

No thank you. While i’d like to add Noah it’s not a need. If he’s a free agent they can pursue him in the offseason. If not…oh well.

If you took out Zacha and Backlund it would be more tempting.

Boston does not have the cap space though, for either scenario.