“Really exciting for me” – Pavel Zacha signs one-year contract with Boston Bruins, avoids arbitration

“Really exciting for me” – Pavel Zacha signs one-year contract with Boston Bruins, avoids arbitration

Pavel Zacha

Czech ice hockey centre Pavel Zacha signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Boston Bruins on Monday. The 25-year-old forward, who was a restricted free agent, avoided a salary arbitration hearing scheduled for Thursday.

The Brno native Zacha was traded to the Bruins by New Jersey Devils on July 13 for forward Erik Haula. The former had a National Hockey League (NHL) career-high of 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 70 games last season.

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“It’s great. I know a lot of guys,” Zacha said after the trade, as quoted by NHL.com. “I train summers here in Boston and stay here in summers, so I know a lot of players. The Czech players who are on the team here too (forwards David Pastrnak, Tomas Nosek, defenseman Jakub Zboril). Every time I play against them, it’s a tough team to play here. So, being part of it, it’s really exciting for me.”

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“There’s big room for improvement for me” 

Pavel Zacha
Pavel Zacha

Picked by the Devils with the No. 6 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, Zacha has 179 points (69 goals, 110 assists) in 386 regular-season games, all for New Jersey, but didn’t score any point in five Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Apart from Zacha, the Bruins also signed forwards Patrice Bergeron ($2.5 million) and David Krejci ($1 million) on Monday, each to a one-year contract.

“I think there’s big room for improvement for me, which I think this is going to be great opportunity and restart for me being on this team and having a lot of players who can also help me to reach where I want to be as a player,” Zacha said. “In the last couple of years, I played better than before, but it also wasn’t even close to where I can be. I’m excited to have a restart a little bit in my career and be better than I was last year.”

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