After two years of non-stop trade rumors and stagnant development, the Anaheim Ducks finally made the decision to trade forward Trevor Zegras this past offseason. In exchange for sending Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Ducks received second-and fourth-round picks as well as veteran forward (and former Pittsburgh Penguins forward) Ryan Poehling.
At the time, I loved it from a Flyers perspective and thought it was at least a little bit of a risk for the Ducks. The upside for the Flyers is they
get a top-line talent that could change some games. The downside for the Ducks, at the very least, is they look bad if a talented forward goes elsewhere and blossoms.
Even though Zegras had reached a plateau with the Ducks with obvious frustration on both sides, he was still only entering his age 24 season, still had big talent and untapped potential, and had at least shown glimpses of being a productive NHL player. Given that the cost was only a couple of mid-round picks and a completely replaceable player, it was a good gamble to take. Especially for a team that needed to find way to add more offense and high-level skill to its lineup.
For the most part, Zegras delivered.
The fresh start seemed to help re-ignite his playmaking and offensive potential, while he has also seemed to fully embrace being a Flyer.
Zegras finished with career highs in goals (26) and total points (67), while finishing just two goals and one point off the team lead in each category.
His biggest impact on the Flyers success and turnaround this season, however, are numbers that do not show up on the traditional stat sheet. It might be the reason the Flyers are even here.
The Flyers’ 27 regulation wins are not only the fewest among Eastern Conference playoff teams, they are the only team in the field that did not win at least 33 games in regulation. In the Western Conference, only Pacific Division teams Anaheim and the Los Angeles Kings (26 and 22 respectively) failed to win at least 30 games in regulation. They relied heavily on games that went beyond regulation, winning six games during 3-on-3 and a whopping 10 games in shootouts, more than any other team in the NHL.
Zegras’ contributions to those games can not be overlooked.
He led the NHL with seven shootout goals, while also scoring an overtime winner. Do they win 10 shootouts without him? Probably not. Do they have enough points to finish ahead of Washington with even half of those shootout wins? No they do not.
All of that alone has made him worth it for the Flyers.
The potential downside for the Flyers here, aside from his defensive shortcomings still being there at times, is the obvious fact that 3-on-3 overtime and shootouts are no longer a thing in the playoffs. They are going to have to rely on winning games at 5-on-5, and while they have been better later in the season, only 10 of their 19 wins since Feb. 1 came during regulation.
That’s not to say that Zegras has been a non-factor in more traditional hockey settings.
During 5-on-5 play his 0.72 goals per 60 minutes are 178th out of 384 forwards that logged at least 500 minutes, while his 0.92 primary assists per 60 minutes were 36th, demonstrating strong playmaking abilities. Overall his 1.94 total points per 60 minutes were 104th out of that group of forwards. That is fringe first-second line production. He has the potential to be a problem to deal with offensively.
They needed somebody that could deliver more offense and impact games. Zegras did both. In a traditional sense (being their best playmaker) and non-traditional sense (swinging games and the standings in shootouts).
He is one of the big reasons they are here. Now we get to see what he does now that they are here.
