They’ve used Soucy on the right side as well. If you let Cole walk, Zadorov takes his spot as the 4/5 LD while being a more longer term solution. Cole’s footspeed and decline over the course of the season has me very concerned. I don’t doubt he’s finished, I think he probably still has a year or two left in the tank, but I’m not sure I would fit him in as the 4/5 LD. I’m more than fine with him being a depth signing (like at $1-2M) but he is not my preferred resigning.
If you can sign Zadorov to $4.0M x 6 or $4.5M x 5, I think you do that any day of the week. He’s probably the best LHD free agent (excluding Skjei and Ghostisbehere) and is in his prime. Obviously if he’s asking for $5M+, reluctantly id let him walk. The thing is, as I’ve mentioned, most playoff teams aren’t going to be able to even afford him at $5M so if he wants to sign with a contender, he would have to prefer playing in a different market rather than with us. If he is simply chasing the money, then he signs with a crappy team, but I don’t think he’s actually the type to do that considering his vocal stance on wanting to play for a winning team.
Management has also been interested in Zadorov since the 2023 off season and were pretty damm public about wanting Zadorov’s services, Dhali mentioning they would’ve went after him as a free agent.
He’s essentially an Erik Cernak/Nicolas Hague/Brandon Carlo type of defenseman (less blocked shots) plays 1-2 minutes less (also takes significantly more minors and fighting majors) while having a more positive impact than those three guys (also produces more offense than them). Soucy IIRC averaged 16 minutes before he arrived here and is now effectively our top 4 defenseman. Take Cole out, and Zadorov naturally has more ice time to play.
I would not mind running a top 4 of:
Hughes(24)-Hronek(22)
Zadorov(19)-Soucy(20)
Soucy on the right side simply isn't as effective, and shouldn't be a primary option. A Zadorov-Soucy L/R pairing is not a credible top-four pairing to me, they can't be used in as difficult minutes.
Zadorov slotted at 3LD, on a $4+M AAV is just incredibly inefficient cap allocation. If he wants to sign
the same contract that Soucy did (~$3.25M x 3), then I'll take him back. But he is not going to do that, because he and Milstein know this is their only chance at a big bag.
IMO your evaluation of Z is just wrong. He is not a Cernak (in his prime) or Carlo-esque player. He's never played the tough matchup minutes in his career, as those guys have (and they still produced strong defensive impacts). Tocchet doesn't trust Z in those minutes (per PuckIQ, he plays the lowest % of his icetime against "Elite" competition of any regular Canuck defenseman other than Juulsen). Carlo plays the toughest minutes. Cernak plays the toughest minutes. And Soucy plays the toughest minutes for the Canucks! Z is not that kind of player. He's a guy that ideally is on the bottom-pair, and I don't want to pay him much more than a bottom-pairing salary.
I've said it many time before, but this is correct: If you're projecting another $4.5M cap hit on a defenseman, it makes waaaaay more sense to allocate that cap hit toward a true, top-four RD. Not your luxury 3LD. If you sign Zadorov to what you're projecting, you are basically conceding that the Canucks will have to run Tyler Myers, age 34, another season in top-four RD minutes.