The 2024 summer season is gearing as much as be dramatic, with Vezina Trophy goaltenders and younger prime scorers headlining a really lively commerce market. The Anaheim Geese could also be positioning themselves because the staff of the summer season amidst all of it, as star Geese ahead and former top-10 choose Trevor Zegras is as soon as once more dealing with commerce rumors. Commerce hypothesis is nothing new for the previous USNTDP standout, who confronted loads of uncertainty getting into the season – lacking each coaching camp and preseason motion whereas holding our for a brand new contract. He in the end settled on a three-year, $17.2M bridge contract – although Zegras would regardless find yourself lacking a lot of the season with a damaged ankle. He returned from an 11-week absence in March and in the end totaled 31 video games on the 12 months, scoring simply 15 factors. However regardless of the down 12 months, Zegras’ age, scoring upside and low cost contract provide uncommon and extremely profitable worth on the commerce market.
It appears Zegras’ scoring upside has been shrouded behind a down 12 months this season – however there’s no doubting his place among the many finest younger scorers within the league. Zegras posted a formidable 23 targets and 61 factors in 75 video games as a rookie in 2021-22 – being named the runner-up to Moritz Seider’s 2022 Calder Trophy. Besides, Zegras proved constant in his sophomore 12 months, managing 65 factors and once more scoring 23 targets in 81 video games. Mixed together with his modest scoring this 12 months, Zegras has totaled 55 targets and 154 factors throughout his first 211 video games. That equates to a 0.72 points-per-game tempo, rating Zegras among the many most potent younger scorers within the sport, and situating him forward of gamers like Seth Jarvis, Lucas Raymond and Cole Caufield.
And in contrast to many younger gamers, Zegras gives the pliability play each middle and winger at an NHL degree, with Anaheim mentioning adapting Zegras to middle as a key precedence in his early growth and time within the AHL. He was incessantly used down the center by his first two years within the NHL – although he posted a dismal 40.6 faceoff proportion. The arrival of Leo Carlsson this season was sufficient to bump Zegras again to the wing, the place he struggled to work off the boards in a Geese system constructed extra on physicality than finesse. His struggles on the faceoff dot make him a tough sale as a full-time middle, although his flexibility makes him a match for much more groups.
Zegras’ status could also be unruly, however he’s been in elite scoring expertise since breaking out with the NTDP’s infamous 2019 lineup. With a lot consistency between his first two seasons, it appears more likely that his down 12 months was extra the results of a shaky begin to the 12 months, marred by extended contracting negotiations and harm, than it was a sign that he’s fallen off track. At a spry 23, Zegras is simply kicking off his profession, already carving out a constant top-six function and robust scoring tempo earlier than many gamers earn a every day lineup function in any respect. His offensive upside has vindicated Zegras’ draft spot – as he sits fourth among the many 2019 class in NHL scoring – nevertheless it additionally makes him considerably more durable to cost on the commerce market. There merely aren’t earlier trades located round a participant as high-scoring or younger as Zegras.
It, in a method, hearkens again to Larry Murphy’s transfer from the Los Angeles Kings to the Washington Capitals in 1983. Whereas the swap differs in a lot of how – Murphy most notably being a excessive scoring defenseman, and a participant considerably nearer to the league’s biggest on the time of his transfer. However there are many similarities as nicely. Murphy additionally carried top-10 draft pedigree, vindicated by star scoring, and was moved earlier than his twenty fourth birthday. In that case, the Kings acquired stout top-four defenseman Brian Engblom and Ken Houston as he neared retirement. Zegras’ commerce rumors are occurring over 4 many years later – so there’s like not a lot to be gleaned from Murphy’s transfer – although precedent may counsel that the Geese might have to accept impactful depth in any transfer that includes such a younger star.
The Geese will discover far more current (and life like) steering within the trades of Martin Necas and Nikolaj Ehlers, two different potent scorers on the commerce market – although Necas, the youthful of the 2, remains to be three years Zegras’ senior. Hypothesis round what the pair of wingers may fetch has been throughout, with Carolina rumored to be fascinated about prime prospects, although even a swap of the pair has been talked about as a chance. With Zegras below contract for the subsequent two seasons, and expiring as a restricted free agent, Anaheim has loads of time to attend and see how the Necas and Ehlers conditions pan out. No matter deal they put collectively for his or her younger star will undoubtedly be a blockbuster, bringing within the items to spice up Anaheim into a brand new period – one led by Carlsson, adorned by new jerseys and hopefully certain for the playoff consistency the Geese had been as soon as identified for.
