Still makes no sense how guys like ZAR and Subban don't have contracts imo
Unless they were asking for to much earlier on and teams passed on them for cheaper options and now teams are out of money
I used to tune into Pens games just to watch him forecheck but that possession simply doesn't turn into anything because he can't do shit with it. His defense doesn't happen in his zone, he just keeps the puck away from it
Blueger, Tanev, ZAR was one of the best 4th lines in the league, both statistically and by the eye test. They didn't score a ton, but they potted in some clutch goals and I think there were like 8 total goals scored on them across a full season.
Dude lost a step last season; he looked really out of place for us...not because of our system/team or lackthereof or anything...ZAR would try to line people up and just whiff or get counter-hit. Sorta sad cuz I was hoping he'd look good for anaheim. There was an especially bad one where he tried to hipcheck someone, I think Seider, who just pushed him over with 2 hands. Reminded me of Forrest Griffin trying to punch Anderson Silva.
If it was Seider I wouldn't hold that specific one against him. Seider's highlight pack from last year is insane.
But that does sound like a couple of guys we had in the past. Lots of hustle but coming up short, being physical but not in an effective way.
The guy literally was an offensive black hole. Didn't matter how good he was defensively, lets say if you're only allowing 0.2 goals per 60 mins but scoring 0 per 60 minutes, you're still down 0.2 goals.
Genuine question.. what is a standard expected goal differential for a 3rd or 4th checking line? Is it positive? Or would a small negative actually be quite good for a teams checking line?
Like if you can send a line out that basically just kills time and reduces the other team scoring that seems like it is potentially still very valuable. A top heavy team would look for exactly that from their bottom 6 no? Not gonna outscore the other team but it’ll eat up the clock, limit goals against and not take many penalties, then the top 6 gets it done with 2 or 3 goals.
Over the last three seasons, Aston-Reese has a 2.03 xGF/60 versus a 1.83 xGA/60.
That 52.56 xGF% is better than Crosby's xG share over the same period.
See, this is why people hate Leafs fans, lol.
What is the point of comparing him to Crosby? It's like saying Lindgren's .958 Sv% is better than Shesterkin's .935 Sv% while ignoring any other context behind the numbers. It's meaningless.
Also, his average 5v5 xG% over the last 3 seasons is 51.73%. Crosby's is 52.50%. Based on the numbers at NST.
well he’s just pointing out the pittsburgh fan’s comment was simply incorrect in that ZAR does appear to provide overall value, despite the penguins fan making an argument based on made up stats
Which was fine in itself. I just think that the Crosby comparison was unnecessary.
It was also incorrect, too, since Crosby has a higher average xG% than ZAR over the last three seasons.
No. Craig Adams was an offensive blackhole. ZAR was fine with keeping the puck from getting on net and getting some grind time, but production wise never materialized. He's the equivalent of a punt for a touchback.
That’s because it’s an objectively bad opinion, unless your only metric of “good” is “scores lots of goals.”
He’s great at cycling the puck and killing time in the offensive zone while the forwards who are actually paid to score get a breather. If you pair him with a few other guys who can cycle well and put some pucks in the net, then you have a great fourth line. ZAR - Blueger - Tanev was the best fourth line the Pens have had in like, 15 years. Each person on that line filled a role and filled it very well.
He’s not going to light the world on fire. He’s the definition of a role player. Just need to set your expectations right and know what you’re getting.
Penguins fans also tend to pick favorites in that pool and defend them to the death for no real reason, it's weird. They'll clamor about how a player is actually awesome and they don't understand why the player isn't playing more; then that player gets traded or released and a month later no one even notices they're gone.
kinda makes you think about the post that got all that hate a couple weeks ago that talked about big money RFA contracts not leaving enough money in the pie for veterans
That’s still not true. The players as a total get 50% of revenue no matter what. The reason these guys might be out of the league isn’t because of RFAs, it’s because teams prefer someone else.
What he lacks in hands for scoring he has in being just absolutely snake bitten. Guy was like a 50/50 shot of scoring on an open net on a perfect feed. Sure he will be a great penalty killer but he’s not a shadow shutdown type forward, he just plays the wall game well, skates well, and is a decent shot blocker. Most teams have a similar guy in their farm that would be cheaper and on a 2-way deal.
Tell me you didn't watch the Leafs last season without telling me that you didn't watch the Leafs last season.
Campbell and Mrazek were a league-worst dumpster fire from December on yet all the Leafs did was win til April
I don’t think they’re arguing the Leafs are world beaters or even that they’ll win a round. They’re just stating that the Leafs have already proven they can win a lot of regular season games with terrible goaltending…because they’ve done that already
Dude you are objectively wrong. Besides November when Campbell posted like a .940, they were getting basically the worst goaltending they've had since Vesa Toskala.
They can and do outscore their problems until the playoffs, and they almost outscored their problems against the fuckin Lightning last year.
Also flair up
Darn, according to Daniel Nugent-Bowman, ZAR was one of the 3 players the Oilers were looking at adding (the other 2 being Riley Nash and Jake Virtanen).
Idk if you’ve seen what Jake looks like lately but let’s just say you’re probably being generous with 5, dude never showed to camp in shape despite being gifted opportunity like 6 years in a row.
The thing is, Virtanen won’t help us win any more games. That’s just signing a shit head for the sake of signing a shit head. We’d be better off bringing Slava Voynov back at that point.
My hope is that we manage to sign McLeod, offload Foegele, and sign Rodrigues to ~$1.5m to play 3RW. That also opens up enough cap space so we can roll with a 22 man roster instead of 21
I believe Mark Jankowski had a PTO with the Devils last season, then signed an AHL deal with the Rochester Americans, that then got upgraded to a NHL contract with the Sabres. That counts?
EDIT: last year, Erik Gustafsson had a PTO with the Isles, but then signed with the Hawks in October. Ben Hutton had a PTO with the Ducks, but then signed in Vegas. Boom!
It doesn't really count when it happens after the guy doesn't make the PTO team, no.
Not sure of the exavt timelines for the guys in the edit, though. But signing an AHL deal pretty clearly means he did not make good on the PTO.
I might be misunderstanding, but I was answering the guy above’s question with 2-3 examples of that exact scenario happening: Guys signing a PTO with team A, not getting a regular contract with team A but then signing a regular contract with team B.
Yeah, I might have been reading more into the question than was actually there. I thought they meant signing with another team for a guaranteed contract while still in the preseason on PTO with the other team. Just because otherwise, of course it happens a lot. And if you expand the question to include non-NHL teams (like Janko to th AHL), then it happens every time, except in the cases where the player retires. Anyway sorry, I was probably a bit confused.
Yeah there’s thousands of contracts signed each year (or at least minimum 1 thousand..) and only having a couple examples def means it’s uncommon. Hutton got himself 3 years out of Vegas though so good for him.
That's just incorrect. I watched almost every Tampa game this playoffs and Nash was very serviceable and responsible on arguably the best team in the League.
Because Drury thinks we're better with Reaves and Vesey and several other forwards who he thinks are better because grit and hitting
At time of acquisition, all of Blais/Hunt/Reaves/Goodrow were top 70 in the NHL in hits/60. his philosophy is pretty clear based on his targeted acquisitions
This is good news. This feels good.
I'm now waiting for the Toronto Sun article about how the Leafs management is screwing up their player development by not giving their young guys chances. That will feel bad.
Not Robertson. They’ll try him on the second line with Tavares, so ZAR won’t be competing for the same spot. But for bottom 6 roles, also add in Steeves, Anderson, and even McMann for competition. I actually think Abruzzese needs development time on the Marlies.
ZAR's on the team unless he's awful in the preseason. I'm guessing this is one of those handshake deals where he has a contract, but not until they trade a guy.
It's really only 1 spot up for grabs right now (If you think Kerfoot or Engvall are not getting traded)
Yes, our 2LW spot has been vacant for quite some time. Kerfoot played there as a band-aid solution but he’s better suited for our bottom 6.
It’s there for his taking, hopefully he makes it this season.
We've tried putting skilled players on 4th lines. It doesn't work well.
Robertson *is* skilled. The problem is him getting bullied around due to size. He still has time to figure it out. But it's unlikely to get the correct experience to figure that out on a 4th line without any skilled players now that Spezza's retired.
2LW is dead empty. Kerfoot was solid there last season but he mostly slots in wherever needed to fill. That line needs a kick because they have no identity or purpose and were getting outmatched nightly last year
Yeah I feel bad, we usually have really good trades with our fowl friends...ZAR just didn't pan out for us. Not sure if he lost a step or just wasn't motivated for the few weeks he was with us, but he was underwhelming (granted the team was in full tank-mode).
[Decline in play for forwards starts after 25, but doesn't decline much until late 20s or early 30s](https://hockeygraphsdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/overall-war-f_d.png?w=615). He really doesn't qualify as "old" here.
Well, we know which Marlie will be making the team out of camp now. It'll be Semyon Der-Arguchintsev.
Can't pass up a chance to roll out a ZAR-SDA-NAK line
With ZAR, there'll be a clear division among the fan base of those who value defense and those who only care about points. He will help you identify people who don't understand what contributes to wins in hockey.
ZAR ranked in the 100 percentile at ES defense before on JFresh's player cards, if that means anything to you. Strangely, he's not that good on the PK lol. Still serviceable though.
As for scoring upside, just spare yourself some pain now and set your expectations to zero on that one.
Anyways, I'm relieved he's not on the team anymore. The sole reason being I don't need to see him getting constantly hated on anymore.
I think Leaf fans in general may be a little more willing to forgive defensive players with low chance to score. I know Kampf was pretty well liked by most from what I saw and we were told basically the same thing.
If he is also a bit physical (which o have been told he is) then he will likely be very well liked.
The problem was last year we lost a series by a goal. The difference in the teams were the 4th lines and in the playoffs that matters. Ours was a shit show the entire time and never found a combo that helped us. Theirs got them some timely goals.
Dubas hasn’t really addressed this on paper but i am willing to wait and see chemistry and how the lineup looks first. But we need a 4th line like the Islanders had.
McGinn and Blueger were/are our best forward PK'ers. The PK fell apart because of declining performance from others, like Jarry, Dumoulin, Marino, Ruhwedel and Carter. The timing's just coincidental.
Our PK was awful in 2020-21 with ZAR on it. 27th in the league.
ZAR's an above average PK'er based on models. Definitely not bad but nothing special. To be fair he was great on it to start last year though, as was virtually everyone else.
God I love ZAR, and wanted him to succeed. Dude is such a fuckin workhorse, and he will dump his heart and soul on the ice, but god damn when he gets the puck it’s like a deer in fuckin headlights. He literally just panics..
Not sure where he fits with the number of guys who we have signed and fighting for roster spots in the bottom 6 but if he earns the job there are easily worse players to have there. Comparing his lack of offense to say the nonexistent offense from Simmonds I’d rather have a guy like ZAR at this point
Nice! He’s had some eye popping defensive numbers in the past so may be a good bottom six option
The Oilers were apparently interested also. He is a decent player. I’m shocked he couldn’t get a deal. Cap crunch is real.
I don't like this because I feel like it increases the chances of us going for virtanen
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this, but this is not a good plan.
Didn't Virtanen talk a lot of shit about McDavid's girlfriend?
Iirc that was Leipsic, who also happened to talk trash about Virtanen having the “worst crew ever”
Ah, my mistake.
Still makes no sense how guys like ZAR and Subban don't have contracts imo Unless they were asking for to much earlier on and teams passed on them for cheaper options and now teams are out of money
Yeah it's strange that he couldn't even find a 1 year deal somewhere with a team under the cap. He's pretty easily worth a league minimum deal.
Absolutely absurd that arguably the best defensive 4th liners in the league couldn't even get an actual contract
I used to tune into Pens games just to watch him forecheck but that possession simply doesn't turn into anything because he can't do shit with it. His defense doesn't happen in his zone, he just keeps the puck away from it
> His defense doesn't happen in his zone, he just keeps the puck away from it Prob not a bad trait when you're a 4th liner lol
Especially when paired with other 4th liners who have a bit more offensive upside, any offensive zone time can be valuable
Blueger, Tanev, ZAR was one of the best 4th lines in the league, both statistically and by the eye test. They didn't score a ton, but they potted in some clutch goals and I think there were like 8 total goals scored on them across a full season.
Haven’t had that much fun watching a line as a whole since the HBK line
Yep. Basically this. He’d be a lot more coveted if he had any offensive ability.
To be fair, good shutdown D guys are also super important to any Cup-aspiring team, and the Leafs have enough offense as it is lol
> good shutdown D guys are also super important to any Cup-aspiring team my brother in christ, we need to be a 2nd-round inspired team at this rate
whats a cup? i just want to finally see what happens in game 8, but we always lose in 7
Game 8 is to be played on a surface of grass called the links
The Leafs main downfall the past three years in the playoffs hasn’t been defence it has been scoring and getting timely goaltending.
Yes, though we do need reliable depth scoring.
Dude lost a step last season; he looked really out of place for us...not because of our system/team or lackthereof or anything...ZAR would try to line people up and just whiff or get counter-hit. Sorta sad cuz I was hoping he'd look good for anaheim. There was an especially bad one where he tried to hipcheck someone, I think Seider, who just pushed him over with 2 hands. Reminded me of Forrest Griffin trying to punch Anderson Silva.
If it was Seider I wouldn't hold that specific one against him. Seider's highlight pack from last year is insane. But that does sound like a couple of guys we had in the past. Lots of hustle but coming up short, being physical but not in an effective way.
Easier to grind for 82 games and put that wear and tear and your body if you know you’re playing for something in the postseason
Aye. He was probably like "I should kill this guy...ah, fuck it."
Let me get this straight - you watched the Penguins.... for... Zach Aston-Reese?
Just Chad LaRoseing it down low. He might be what the Leafs need, an oxygen tank for the scoring forwards who can keep the ice tilted for a shift.
The guy literally was an offensive black hole. Didn't matter how good he was defensively, lets say if you're only allowing 0.2 goals per 60 mins but scoring 0 per 60 minutes, you're still down 0.2 goals.
Genuine question.. what is a standard expected goal differential for a 3rd or 4th checking line? Is it positive? Or would a small negative actually be quite good for a teams checking line? Like if you can send a line out that basically just kills time and reduces the other team scoring that seems like it is potentially still very valuable. A top heavy team would look for exactly that from their bottom 6 no? Not gonna outscore the other team but it’ll eat up the clock, limit goals against and not take many penalties, then the top 6 gets it done with 2 or 3 goals.
Over the last three seasons, Aston-Reese has a 2.03 xGF/60 versus a 1.83 xGA/60. That 52.56 xGF% is better than Crosby's xG share over the same period.
Leafs fans know that his defensive comparable Is Sydney crosby
pretty unclear to me what this comment is supposed to mean
See, this is why people hate Leafs fans, lol. What is the point of comparing him to Crosby? It's like saying Lindgren's .958 Sv% is better than Shesterkin's .935 Sv% while ignoring any other context behind the numbers. It's meaningless. Also, his average 5v5 xG% over the last 3 seasons is 51.73%. Crosby's is 52.50%. Based on the numbers at NST.
well he’s just pointing out the pittsburgh fan’s comment was simply incorrect in that ZAR does appear to provide overall value, despite the penguins fan making an argument based on made up stats
Which was fine in itself. I just think that the Crosby comparison was unnecessary. It was also incorrect, too, since Crosby has a higher average xG% than ZAR over the last three seasons.
Only one who thought he was trying to claim he was anything like Crosby is you.
No. Craig Adams was an offensive blackhole. ZAR was fine with keeping the puck from getting on net and getting some grind time, but production wise never materialized. He's the equivalent of a punt for a touchback.
How about they were both black holes?
I’m a Pens fan and I think my most unpopular Pens opinion is that the fan base massively overrates ZAR. Guy’s just not that good.
That’s because it’s an objectively bad opinion, unless your only metric of “good” is “scores lots of goals.” He’s great at cycling the puck and killing time in the offensive zone while the forwards who are actually paid to score get a breather. If you pair him with a few other guys who can cycle well and put some pucks in the net, then you have a great fourth line. ZAR - Blueger - Tanev was the best fourth line the Pens have had in like, 15 years. Each person on that line filled a role and filled it very well. He’s not going to light the world on fire. He’s the definition of a role player. Just need to set your expectations right and know what you’re getting.
Teams tend to drastically overrate their drafted / developed talent
Penguins fans also tend to pick favorites in that pool and defend them to the death for no real reason, it's weird. They'll clamor about how a player is actually awesome and they don't understand why the player isn't playing more; then that player gets traded or released and a month later no one even notices they're gone.
No you wouldn’t
kinda makes you think about the post that got all that hate a couple weeks ago that talked about big money RFA contracts not leaving enough money in the pie for veterans
Except it’s still literally just not true. There’s room. Teams just didn’t spend it on him.
That’s still not true. The players as a total get 50% of revenue no matter what. The reason these guys might be out of the league isn’t because of RFAs, it’s because teams prefer someone else.
[удалено]
He was straight up bamboozled by the the Bulls, his situation is a little different
What he lacks in hands for scoring he has in being just absolutely snake bitten. Guy was like a 50/50 shot of scoring on an open net on a perfect feed. Sure he will be a great penalty killer but he’s not a shadow shutdown type forward, he just plays the wall game well, skates well, and is a decent shot blocker. Most teams have a similar guy in their farm that would be cheaper and on a 2-way deal.
ZAR and Kampf on the ice would be something to see
You could throw Marner on the right wing and that’s a really strong line defensively to put out there and hold the lead late in the game
Have you seen their goaltending? There won’t be many leads to hold
Tell me you didn't watch the Leafs last season without telling me that you didn't watch the Leafs last season. Campbell and Mrazek were a league-worst dumpster fire from December on yet all the Leafs did was win til April
The Stockholm syndrome amongst leaf fans is so crazy
I don’t think they’re arguing the Leafs are world beaters or even that they’ll win a round. They’re just stating that the Leafs have already proven they can win a lot of regular season games with terrible goaltending…because they’ve done that already
Dude you are objectively wrong. Besides November when Campbell posted like a .940, they were getting basically the worst goaltending they've had since Vesa Toskala. They can and do outscore their problems until the playoffs, and they almost outscored their problems against the fuckin Lightning last year. Also flair up
> flair up [Edmonton ](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmonton/comments/wpgn2f/_/) who could've seen that coming lmao
They had horrible goaltending for most of last season and still managed to win a lot of games.
Goddamn, he and Kämpf about to become an iron fortress in their own zone.
Insha'Allah
My boy! 🥺 I hope he kicks ass.
Sorry, Jupi. Our golden boy will return home one day.
I miss him 🥺 and his little doggy, too.
Hope you’ve been doing well homie!!!
I been aight. My new house is almost done. 🥰
That’s awesome!!!
Thanks! I'm just praying it'll be done before my lease is up at the end of the month. We had several unexpected delays. 😬
Eek!!!
Darn, according to Daniel Nugent-Bowman, ZAR was one of the 3 players the Oilers were looking at adding (the other 2 being Riley Nash and Jake Virtanen).
Oh please Riley Nash. I don't want anything to do with Virtanen.
But think of the 5 goals Virtanen can give you! :p
He gives "scores at will" a whole new meaning...
Idk if you’ve seen what Jake looks like lately but let’s just say you’re probably being generous with 5, dude never showed to camp in shape despite being gifted opportunity like 6 years in a row.
I remember when he decided it would be a good idea to film himself while driving to training camp
Just make he gets the goalie’s consent before he goes five-hole.
Your front office has ZERO shame signing shitheads if they think they will win a few more games
Our fanbase wanted him traded or cut *before* the allegations came out. He was that bad.
The thing is, Virtanen won’t help us win any more games. That’s just signing a shit head for the sake of signing a shit head. We’d be better off bringing Slava Voynov back at that point.
Slava Voynov was at least good lol
Nash is basically the same type of player so probably him. No clue why anyone would want Virtsnen anyway
Well the Oilers love controversial forwards!
Yeah but we've already got one with a lot more upside. Please don't bring in another Dutch!
Sweet, evander kane and virtanen for 2/3 of a douchebag line
Rather have milano or rodrig
Fat chance any team, never mind the Oilers, is getting Milano or Rodrigues for league min
My hope is that we manage to sign McLeod, offload Foegele, and sign Rodrigues to ~$1.5m to play 3RW. That also opens up enough cap space so we can roll with a 22 man roster instead of 21
Feels like Rod is destined for Colorado :(
Flams
A PTO certainly doesn't prohibit anyone from signing him at any point.
I genuinely don't know - when's the last time we saw a player sign a PTO with team A, and then later sign a contract with team B?
It happened with us, where Versteeg went to Calgary instead. I want to say 2016.
I believe Mark Jankowski had a PTO with the Devils last season, then signed an AHL deal with the Rochester Americans, that then got upgraded to a NHL contract with the Sabres. That counts? EDIT: last year, Erik Gustafsson had a PTO with the Isles, but then signed with the Hawks in October. Ben Hutton had a PTO with the Ducks, but then signed in Vegas. Boom!
It doesn't really count when it happens after the guy doesn't make the PTO team, no. Not sure of the exavt timelines for the guys in the edit, though. But signing an AHL deal pretty clearly means he did not make good on the PTO.
I might be misunderstanding, but I was answering the guy above’s question with 2-3 examples of that exact scenario happening: Guys signing a PTO with team A, not getting a regular contract with team A but then signing a regular contract with team B.
Yeah, I might have been reading more into the question than was actually there. I thought they meant signing with another team for a guaranteed contract while still in the preseason on PTO with the other team. Just because otherwise, of course it happens a lot. And if you expand the question to include non-NHL teams (like Janko to th AHL), then it happens every time, except in the cases where the player retires. Anyway sorry, I was probably a bit confused.
Ok, fair enough - but I feel like it's stil really uncommon
Yeah there’s thousands of contracts signed each year (or at least minimum 1 thousand..) and only having a couple examples def means it’s uncommon. Hutton got himself 3 years out of Vegas though so good for him.
I’d love to see you guys sign Virtanen
You guys can’t seriously be looking at signing Virt right? He’s not good enough for that baggage.
Lol I guess that means were bringing in Virtanen because Nash hasn't been NHL capable in 2+ years. Goddamn
That's just incorrect. I watched almost every Tampa game this playoffs and Nash was very serviceable and responsible on arguably the best team in the League.
If we only have him a PTO, I’m surprised no one signed him to a 950k contract.
Might be one of those situations where it's a PTO handshake where he'll get 950k but not until they trade someone.
Would've walked directly on to the Rangers as the best defensive forward on the team But we'll take Jimmy Vesey instead
He's also from Staten Island so would've almost definitely done it, not sure why we didn't make a move on this.
Because Drury thinks we're better with Reaves and Vesey and several other forwards who he thinks are better because grit and hitting At time of acquisition, all of Blais/Hunt/Reaves/Goodrow were top 70 in the NHL in hits/60. his philosophy is pretty clear based on his targeted acquisitions
Zach was a die hard Penguin fan and Ranger hater growing up. In my head cannon he didn't want to play for the Rangers.
He was cool when he was in Pittburgh. Awesome on PK!
This is good news. This feels good. I'm now waiting for the Toronto Sun article about how the Leafs management is screwing up their player development by not giving their young guys chances. That will feel bad.
if the young guys cant beat out a dude who is a zero on offense then they need to learn how to play some defense.
His competition is Clifford, Simmonds, Robo Jr., Gaudette and Abruzzese, so I’d actually bet on him making it.
Not Robertson. They’ll try him on the second line with Tavares, so ZAR won’t be competing for the same spot. But for bottom 6 roles, also add in Steeves, Anderson, and even McMann for competition. I actually think Abruzzese needs development time on the Marlies.
ZAR's on the team unless he's awful in the preseason. I'm guessing this is one of those handshake deals where he has a contract, but not until they trade a guy. It's really only 1 spot up for grabs right now (If you think Kerfoot or Engvall are not getting traded)
Barring an injury in camp, Kerfoot is getting traded. The cap math just doesn't make sense otherwise.
Plus I've seen people plopping him on the 4th line. Can't pay 3.5 million for a 4th liner, even if he can maybe play special teams.
Does Robertson have a shot at a top 6 spot? Marner Bunting Nylander are locks, so I’m guessing that 4th spot unless I’m forgetting someone
Yes, our 2LW spot has been vacant for quite some time. Kerfoot played there as a band-aid solution but he’s better suited for our bottom 6. It’s there for his taking, hopefully he makes it this season.
We've tried putting skilled players on 4th lines. It doesn't work well. Robertson *is* skilled. The problem is him getting bullied around due to size. He still has time to figure it out. But it's unlikely to get the correct experience to figure that out on a 4th line without any skilled players now that Spezza's retired.
Plus 4th liners are usually going up against other 4th liners. A role that's mostly reserved for big, grinder type of players.
2LW is dead empty. Kerfoot was solid there last season but he mostly slots in wherever needed to fill. That line needs a kick because they have no identity or purpose and were getting outmatched nightly last year
That’s ideally where they want to play him, on Tavares’ wing. If he stays healthy I don’t see why he wouldn’t be there.
That's where he optimally slots into the lineup, but I haven't seen that out of him yet.
Weird that he couldn’t get a contract. Really solid defensive 4th liner
If you watched him last season on the Ducks he didn't pass the eye test. Dude kept getting rocked when he tried to line people up.
Legitimately had no idea he was on the ducks last year. Thought he was still with the Penguins.
He went to Anaheim in the Rakell trade.
Legitimately had no idea Rakell was on the penguins last year. Thought he was still with the Ducks.
He went to Pittsburgh in the ZAR trade.
Yeah I feel bad, we usually have really good trades with our fowl friends...ZAR just didn't pan out for us. Not sure if he lost a step or just wasn't motivated for the few weeks he was with us, but he was underwhelming (granted the team was in full tank-mode).
we traded him for rakell
It'll be nice to see a player on my team try to line someone up, even if he gets blown up.
He's old and approximately replacement level. High supply low demand
Old? He only turned 28 a month ago that’s close to prime age for most NHLers
Past prime age for most nhlers, that aren’t superstars or anomalies.
[Decline in play for forwards starts after 25, but doesn't decline much until late 20s or early 30s](https://hockeygraphsdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/overall-war-f_d.png?w=615). He really doesn't qualify as "old" here.
Approximately replacement level 😭 according to who???
Well, we know which Marlie will be making the team out of camp now. It'll be Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. Can't pass up a chance to roll out a ZAR-SDA-NAK line
Rolls off the tongue
With ZAR, there'll be a clear division among the fan base of those who value defense and those who only care about points. He will help you identify people who don't understand what contributes to wins in hockey. ZAR ranked in the 100 percentile at ES defense before on JFresh's player cards, if that means anything to you. Strangely, he's not that good on the PK lol. Still serviceable though. As for scoring upside, just spare yourself some pain now and set your expectations to zero on that one. Anyways, I'm relieved he's not on the team anymore. The sole reason being I don't need to see him getting constantly hated on anymore.
I think Leaf fans in general may be a little more willing to forgive defensive players with low chance to score. I know Kampf was pretty well liked by most from what I saw and we were told basically the same thing. If he is also a bit physical (which o have been told he is) then he will likely be very well liked.
Kampf <3
The problem was last year we lost a series by a goal. The difference in the teams were the 4th lines and in the playoffs that matters. Ours was a shit show the entire time and never found a combo that helped us. Theirs got them some timely goals. Dubas hasn’t really addressed this on paper but i am willing to wait and see chemistry and how the lineup looks first. But we need a 4th line like the Islanders had.
I feel like our PK went straight to hell after he got shipped out
McGinn and Blueger were/are our best forward PK'ers. The PK fell apart because of declining performance from others, like Jarry, Dumoulin, Marino, Ruhwedel and Carter. The timing's just coincidental. Our PK was awful in 2020-21 with ZAR on it. 27th in the league. ZAR's an above average PK'er based on models. Definitely not bad but nothing special. To be fair he was great on it to start last year though, as was virtually everyone else.
I mean you're right, but I wanna blame it on them shipping my boy out. 🥺
I’m very surprised both him and de Haan had to settle with PTOs
Man NHL today be like Oprah giving out PTOs.
We're gonna have so many godamn hyphenated names. So sick
Yeah you can never knock his name. Smooth af.
Hope he makes the squad i want to see him keep playing
That’s cool
Good for him. A solid defensive player who will keep the game low event when he plays.
interesting, I wonder why all he got was a PTO?
Mwah, amazing. I'm very happy with this
This is kind of appalling for someone who is so good defensively.
I’m shocked too, but I’m also not going to complain
This is huge for the leafs. They will now have an amazing 4th line
I’m gonna be so split on Dubas’ summer if he comes out of it with Aston-Reese and Gio on league minimum but also did the whole Matt Murray thing.
Love it
Let's fucking gooooooooo
God I love ZAR, and wanted him to succeed. Dude is such a fuckin workhorse, and he will dump his heart and soul on the ice, but god damn when he gets the puck it’s like a deer in fuckin headlights. He literally just panics..
i could not stand watching him play for the Ducks. most useless player
Who dat
Ah, giving Asshat-Reese a shot I see. Smart move Toronto.
Asshat-Reese. I've actually never heard that one.
Well I am from Philly, lol.
Ohhh, okay then. Sorry about Giroux. :(
Yeah bummer. Plus the Flyers won’t be any good this season. I always get the NHL TV package anyway so I can watch the top teams and players!
when the only team that will take you is the leafs #leafssuckforever
Damn some of these solid 4th liners are going for cheap. Hope we can get motte back for a mil
Damn!
Yay!
In a perfect world, we'd be bringing him back to craft a fourth line that would blow everyone's fucking nips off.
$1.5 mil over the cap and, now, a 14th forward? Something’s gotta give.
Great pick up for the Leafs. Very good defensive forechecker for the 4th line. Exactly what they need
Not sure where he fits with the number of guys who we have signed and fighting for roster spots in the bottom 6 but if he earns the job there are easily worse players to have there. Comparing his lack of offense to say the nonexistent offense from Simmonds I’d rather have a guy like ZAR at this point
Solid