Yes. We could. Then again, we could make a case against.
23-year-old Filip Zadina signed a three-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings in August of 2022. It paid the former sixth overall pick at the 2018 NHL Entry Draft a base salary of $915,000 in 2022-2023 coming off his entry level contract. It was scheduled to double to $1.83 million for next season and $2.73 million for the 2024-2025 season.
On July 6 the Red Wings placed Zadina on unconditional waivers for the purpose of mutually agreeing to terminate his contract. It was made official yesterday as the contract has been terminated, making Zadina an unrestricted free agent who can sign anywhere.
Red Wings General Manager Steve Yzerman, who can be known for playing hardball at times confirmed that Zadina had requested a trade before the NHL Entry Draft but there was no interest. They placed Zadina on waivers on Tuesday but again there were no takers.
Zadina, who has 28 goals and 40 assists in 190 career NHL games has been bothered by injuries over the years, including a broken foot last season that limited him to just 30 games.
I was wondering what message Yzerman was sending following his post termination press conference, specifically when he said “Theoretically or statistically, the higher players are picked, the more likelihood you’re getting an impact player. There’s no guarantees. The first pick overall, you’re usually getting a pretty good player. Sometimes you’re getting a superstar. With each pick, the numbers decrease a little bit.”
Yzerman is widely considered one of the best GMs in the business. These weren’t sour grape comments by him but rather an honest assessment: Zadina did not live up to his draft pedigree. Yzerman still had some faith in the young forward. After placing him on waivers he told the press “The best-case scenario, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility, is that he clears waivers, comes to training camp, plays well, works his way up into the lineup and goes. Filip Zadina is a nice young man. With high picks there comes expectations from the outside and from within. Not everybody matures or evolves at the same stage. He’s got to stick with it. And unfortunately, now the situation is if he doesn’t get claimed, he’s with our organization and there’s not much we can do other than both work hard and see if he can become a player.”
By now, everyone knows the comments Zadina made after the Red Wings selected him: “I was telling my agent if they pass on me, I’m going to fill their nets with pucks.”
There have been flashes in Zadina’s game at the NHL level. He’s got very good vision and can make passes all over the ice, even in tight spaces. Not only can he make short passes, but he has the vision to make long tape-to-tape passes. He’s able to find the soft spots to make and receive passes and he has actually been very good without the puck in transition and on the offence. But he also spent most of his time in Detroit on the bottom six and didn’t get a lot of time with say a Dylan Larkin. And let’s face it, Detroit has not been a very good team so was it reasonable to expect production in the role he was in?
But Zadina is/was a goal scorer. So, what happened? Two things stand out and thanks to our friends at MoneyPuck, there are statistics to back it up. In today’s NHL, you have to be willing to go to the net to score and if you are not able to do that yourself, he have to be able to shoot with a purpose, that is to put pucks on the goalie that will create rebounds for your teammates who are in front. In Zadina’s case, only 3% of his shots created rebounds. Furthermore, 19.4% were frozen by the opposing netminder. Those are some serious red flag numbers for a player with his shooting abilities.
Another red flag number thanks to MoneyPuck is where his shots come from, indicating he isn’t getting to the right area. His average shot distance for the 2022-2023 season was 29 feet from the net. That will get you bonus points in the QMJHL but not the NHL.
I’m not trying to be a Negative Nancy here because I do believe that most of what has ailed Zadina, with the exception of injuries, is fixable. It’s going to take the right coaching from head coach to development and the Bruins have that. It will also take the right system and the Bruins have that, but Zadina is going to have to buy into that. It’s going to take the right linemate and they may have that with Charlie Coyle depending on where Coyle is slotted for the upcoming season.
Zadina is looking for a way back in and he will get offers. The only way I see this working for the Bruins is on a one-year deal, two-way contract and a cap hit of $1 million or less.
Follow me on Twitter @dominictiano
Dom - Hockey 