Lions Rival Just Stole Perfect Trade Target Following Detroit's Bye
The Detroit Lions are chasing the Green Bay Packers for the top spot in the NFC North as their bye week comes to a close, and they may need some reinforcements to get them there ahead of the Nov. 4 trade deadline.
The Lions are in good shape with a record of 5-2 coming out of the bye, but an addition or two could put them over the top – especially when it comes to upgrading their secondary.
With just over a week until the deadline, the Lions have several directions they could go. But as they prepare for their Week 9 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, one of Detroit’s competitors for a playoff spot beat them to the punch as the Los Angeles Rams reportedly swung a trade with the Tennessee Titans for cornerback Roger McCreary.
Lions Still Need Answers at CB After Roger McCreary Traded to Rams
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Rams will send a 2026 fifth-round pick to the Titans in exchange for McCreary and a 2026 sixth-rounder. While McCreary has been rough in coverage this season, allowing 24 catches, 250 yards, two touchdowns and an interception with a pass breakup on 28 targets this season
McCreary isn’t likely to transform the Rams defense into a juggernaut, but it’s reliable depth that the Lions do not have at the moment. Starting cornerbacks DJ Reed and Terrion Arnold
Even if Ya-Sin is good to go, the rest of the group is filled with Arthur Maulet, who was on the team’s practice squad earlier this month, and Nick Whiteside, who has played just 40 defensive snaps this season, according to PFF.
One year after watching a 15-win season go up in smoke due to injuries, the Lions would be wise not to make the same mistakes this season. General manager Brad Holmes has already been beaten once in the race to the deadline and needs to identify another trade target before the window closes next week.
Should the Canucks trade for Bruins centre Pavel Zacha?
Wildfire season is over for the year, but there’s still plenty of smoke around Vancouver.
The Canucks’ desire to improve their roster, and specifically their forward corps, is no secret. GM
Rick Dhaliwal initially reported, and then Elliotte Friedman confirmed, that the Canucks had been in contact with the Bruins about Zacha this past week, and that, in Friedman’s words, had “been going on for quite some time.” According to Friedman, “All the way going back to the summer, the Canucks and Bruins have been on-off about this.”
Vancouver’s interest in Zacha makes plenty of sense. They have a well-documented need for NHL centres, especially in the wake of Filip Chytil’s latest injury, and while Reichel has performed well through his first two games as a Canuck,
Zacha, meanwhile, is and always has been a centre at the NHL level. And, at times, a pretty decent one. The sixth overall selection in the 2015 Entry Draft hasn’t exactly lived up to that promise, but he has scored as many as 59 points in a season as recently as 2023-24, which is decent-to-good production for a 2C. At 6’4” and 211 pounds, Zacha has the kind of size that makes a difference, and he often uses it well. Zacha is a powerful skater with a heavy shot, and occasionally verges on power forward territory. He started out his career as a poor faceoff-taker, but has been well over 50% since joining the Bruins and is currently at 59% on this 2025-26 season.
Zacha is a better than average defensive player who faces somewhat-difficult deployment on a regular basis and almost always ends up with more goals for than against. He plays on both special teams, and contributes well to both.
In other words, there is a lot to like about this player in general and specifically his fit for the Canucks and their most immediate needs.
What’s the catch? It’s almost certainly the cost of acquisition.
The Boston Bruins are going nowhere fast. As of this writing, they’re tied with JT Miller and the New York Rangers as the worst team in the Eastern Conference. So, it’s not as if the issue will be their wanting to hang on to Zacha for their own purposes.
But the Canucks and their fans have experienced how dry the market for centres is right now. Zacha, if truly available, would be one of the only top-six quality pivots on the block in this present moment. Combine that scarcity with the importance of the position, and the number of teams actively seeking a centre improvement, and you’ve got a situation that the Bruins must know they can cash in on.
Zacha’s cap hit is only $4.75 million, and he’s only signed through this season and next. That’s a low contract commitment, and something that most teams could find a way to accommodate. That means that the
But is it possible to find a price that is right for both the Canucks and Bruins? That is the question, and given that discussions have apparently been ongoing for months, the answer isn’t readily apparent.
It’s hard to find a top-six centre who has been traded at any point in the last couple of years without a first round pick being involved. It’s almost standard at this point. And if that’s where the Bruins are at with their ask, it makes sense that the Canucks are hesitant to meet it.
The Canucks are just not in a position to trade an unprotected first. They’re not currently in a playoff position, and their start has not been anywhere near consistent enough to count on. Trade an unprotected first now, and that pick could still end up being a very high one.
The Canucks would also be incredibly hesitant to trade any of their true blue-chip prospects. The likes of Braeden Cootes, Tom Willander, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and the younger Elias Pettersson are all far too much a part of the long-term plan to include in a deal. Maybe some of the slightly lesser lights, like Victor Mancini, could move, but then he doesn’t necessarily get the deal done on his own.
If we’re being realistic, teams don’t really get to pursue a valuable player at a scarce position while still holding all their preferred pieces in reserve. If the Canucks don’t meet the Bruins’ ask of a difference-making pick or prospect, it stands to reason that someone else will.
If we had to guess as to where negotiations are at, we think it may be surrounding a first round pick with conditions. The Canucks cannot afford to give up an unprotected first, but what about one that was top-10 protected? That’s a lot closer to palatable, but it still carries with it a number of risks. Most protected picks turn into unprotected picks the next year if their conditions are not met, and the Canucks are not in a spot where they want to give up high picks now or anytime soon. And even if the conditions are met, a pick that slots in between 10 and 15 might still be a price too rich to pay for a Zacha.
Think of it this way: the Canucks probably wouldn’t trade Cootes for Zacha right now. So should they be willing to trade a pick that could turn into the next Cootes within a year?
It’s a difficult balance to strike between the Canucks’ current, immediate needs and their long-term needs.
It’s tough to draw any concrete conclusions without knowing the exact state of negotiations. But if we need to bring this to a point, we can say this: the Zacha situation seems like one in which the acquiring team is all but guaranteed to overpay for the player. That’s the nature of Zacha being one of the few quality centres available for trade right now.
The Canucks, conversely, are a relatively asset-poor team. There are questions about whether they can afford to pay a fair price for Zacha. That means they’re really not in a position to overpay for anyone, and perhaps especially not a top-six centre from a bone-dry market.
As a player, and in a vacuum, Zacha makes an enormous amount of sense for the Canucks. But within the context of his likely cost of acquisition, he becomes what looks like a very difficult and inevitably risky deal for Allvin and Co. to close out.
