Bruins center Marc Savard has seemingly been in the news since the NHL Entry Draft last June, when reports surfaced that general manager Peter Chiarelli was putting out feelers of what the center might bring in return on the trade market.

Savard's 7-year contract extension, signed last December was also the subject of an investigation by the NHL for possibly circumventing the “spirit” of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The investigation was closed, though, as part of the NHL-NHLPA agreement made in the much-maligned Ilya Kovalchuk deal.

On Saturday, speaking to the Boston media for the first time since he left for home after the Bruins’ disappointing playoff loss to the Flyers in May, Savard said he wasn't "hurt" anymore over the summer trade rumors and told reporters he wasn’t nervous at all that his contract might be voided.

“A lot of that stuff comes around in the media but I’ve been talking to Peter [Chiarelli] the whole time and it’s part of the business,” Savard said. “I’m a veteran guy and I’ve been around long enough to know that’s just what people talk about. I knew I was going to be here and this is where they wanted me. But obviously with the [salary] cap, people start putting numbers together and that’s the way things end up.”

Savard and the Bruins remained quiet on the subject until mid-August when Savard told the Ottawa Sun he was “hurt” by the constant trade rumors.

“They hurt me a little bit just because I went to Boston and I helped to build that team back up,” Savard told the Ottawa Sun at the time. “I’ve really tried to work hard with the young guys and being a core player. I was really focused on staying there for the rest of my career. To hear all this stuff this summer bothered me inside more than anything else.”

Savard expects to return to Boston. “Right now I’m a Bruin and that’s the way it is,” he said. “[But] it’s been tough.”

On Saturday, Savard explained that saying he was “hurt” was maybe a bit of a trigger reaction to when Ottawa Sun hockey scribe Bruce Garrioch asked him about the rumors prior to a golf tournament in Ontario on Aug. 16.

“Obviously, when you read something like that you’re like “Wow!” and I think it was a comment, when I said my feelings were hurt, that it just came out a little too quick but it’s just part of the business,” Savard admitted. "It’s something that happened. It’s not something I lost sleep over but it’s just part of the business, like I said.”

He did acknowledge wondering if he would be playing in another city once the season started, but those thoughts quickly went away once he took a step back and looked at the situation.

“Once you start reading everything, you start thinking that, yeah,” he said, "but I signed here. I thought I’d finish here and I still think I’ll finish here. Knowing the chance that we have here as a team with good players, what we’ve built here since Peter has taken over, so at the end of the day I’d be a Bruin. The fans have been great to me here and I love the fans. That’s why I signed here and I just want a chance to get back out there and play.”

As for the questions surrounding his contract extension set to begin this season with an annual cap hit of $4 million?

“No. I knew that everything was legit,” Savard said. “I signed for seven years and I planned on playing for seven years and that’s that.”

Right now his health and recovering from post-concussion syndrome is his primary focus, but when he does get healthy enough to play, the Bruins center is looking forward to possibly being part of a dangerous first line for the Bruins with newcomer Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic as his wing mates.

“The roster looks good, I’m excited,” he said. “He [Horton] looks good, especially his arms. I’m excited and it’s nice to have a scorer like that. Obviously ‘Luch’ [Lucic] had a tough season with injuries last year, but he looks good too. We’ll see where that goes, but right now, I just want to be myself again.”