Prospect Info: Pavel Zacha

[Blender]

Go quote me in the Zacha thread. I only even quoted that post here because I was accused of backing away from my stance on Zacha because of his play when I JUST CRITICIZED HIM FRIDAY.

It wasn't to talk about him, again. In the WJC thread of all places. I was responding to ZBC. Not inviting you to try to start an off topic debate when you had no context to the original discussion.

But thank you for further proving how ridiculous this place is in defending its young players, regardless of performance.

Oh, and you can find several positive posts of mine regarding Zacha both on our board and in the main prospect thread. I give him credit when it's due. But of course, if you criticize him you get labeled as someone who just hates the guy.

Zacha is performing fine, so your "regardless of performance" comment is absurd.

Zacha's even strength production is at 1.519 points per 60 minutes this season, which is an 85% improvement over his 0.82 points per 60 minutes production last season. Overall he has 36 points in 99 NHL games in his career, and is trending upwards. He is 11th from his draft class in total points right now, 9th in points per game among players with at least 50 games played, 13th in points per game among players with at least 30 games played (there are some great rookies this season from that draft).

He's been making a lot of good plays (as well as young player mistakes) and has been playing pretty good hockey since December. While he still has lots of improving to do, he's 20 years old and has less than 100 NHL games under his belt. He needs to be more assertive and more aggressive, and he needs to use his size a lot more. I think he needs to shoot more as well, but that ties into being assertive. Players take time to develop, and harping on his negatives and especially on his season last year with our putrid offense is overly negative.

 

[FooteBahl]

Zacha is performing fine, so your "regardless of performance" comment is absurd.

Zacha's even strength production is at 1.519 points per 60 minutes this season, which is an 85% improvement over his 0.82 points per 60 minutes production last season. Overall he has 36 points in 99 NHL games in his career, and is trending upwards. He is 11th from his draft class in total points right now, 9th in points per game among players with at least 50 games played, 13th in points per game among players with at least 30 games played (there are some great rookies this season from that draft).

He's been making a lot of good plays (as well as young player mistakes) and has been playing pretty good hockey since December. While he still has lots of improving to do, he's 20 years old and has less than 100 NHL games under his belt. He needs to be more assertive and more aggressive, and he needs to use his size a lot more. I think he needs to shoot more as well, but that ties into being assertive. Players take time to develop, and harping on his negatives and especially on his season last year with our putrid offense is overly negative.

Great post sir

 

[NORiculous]

Good post. Thanks for the insight.

A question from the outside... Do you think he would benefit from playing in the A? To learn to dominate and such?

 

[Devils Dominion]

PZ, at least he's better than Crouse

 

[JimEIV]

11 points in 33 games. He's on track for 24 points in 70 games, he had 24 points in 70 games as rookie.

I have seen almost no progression in his game both offensively and defensively. There has barely been subtle refinements.

If we were to graph his development in the last 104 games it would be nearly a flat line.

This is not good.

 

[RSeen]

Watching him play, he seems like a guy who doesn't have much confidence. Right when he gets the puck, he always seems to be looking to pass it off, especially in the neutral zone. Nobody expects him to be like Hall with zone entries, but you'd like to see him carry the puck and assert himself more. I don't think we have anyone else to pay 3C right now so I highly doubt he gets sent down, but it would benefit him. He has definitely been mismanaged IMO, and should have not been in the NHL last year.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Binghamton is a shit show right now so the AHL is not really an option at this point.

Ideally he should have been in the AHL last season but stupid transfer rules forced us into a juniors or NHL scenario. He was coming off a pretty dominant second half of the season and playoff run. Apparently Sarnia went out and got some more import players over the summer because they weren't expecting him to come back. Everyone seemed to think he was done with juniors.

In hindsight, obviously, it probably would have been better to send him back for his D+2 than bring him into the NHL at 19. But we were desperate for young talent, especially at center, and most people thought his size and alleged physicality would give him something to fall back on if the offense didn't come through at first.

I think that situation really influenced the decision to send McLeod back for another year. He's another guy that's clearly too good for juniors but isn't eligible for the AHL.

 

[glenwo2]

11 points in 33 games. He's on track for 24 points in 70 games, he had 24 points in 70 games as rookie.

I have seen almost no progression in his game both offensively and defensively. There has barely been subtle refinements.

If we were to graph his development in the last 104 games it would be nearly a flat line.

This is not good.

So what do we do?

Trade him to another team where he'll blossom?

Send him down to the minors where HOPEFULLY he improves his game?

Keep him up here and STATUS QUO?

 

[Billdo]

So what do we do?

Trade him to another team where he'll blossom?

Send him down to the minors where HOPEFULLY he improves his game?

Keep him up here and STATUS QUO?

Put him in a position to succeed, like between Johansson and Palmieri... not bench him if he takes a penalty unless it’s a really stupid penalty, not bench him if he turns the puck over unless it’s an atrocious turnover, let him play...

 

[JimEIV]

So what do we do?

Trade him to another team where he'll blossom?

Send him down to the minors where HOPEFULLY he improves his game?

Keep him up here and STATUS QUO?

I'm not sure?

But I think he might have been a bit short changed this season in opportunity and patience. I'd like to see him get opportunities with better players, although he has had better teammates than last season.

Zacha has some obvious talent and physical attributes... I'm not sure that they are being fostered in the most effective way possible. But at the end of day, it's up to Zacha to make the most of any opportunities he gets and he hasn't done that.

I'm not sure what to do with Zacha. But I wouldn't advocate trading him, it's way too soon to consider that... I think?

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Zacha has been playing much better recently than he did earlier in the season. He had a nice game in Dallas.

 

[AfroThunder396]

 

[JimEIV]

Looks more like a list of players that won't be n league in a few years than anything meaningful.

 

[Zippy316]

Zacha's last stretch or so has been promising.

He has the skill to develop into a variety of roles, but I'd rather him take the path he's on now. Build a foundation of a 200 ft center who plays from his own end out and then find ways to incorporate his skill into the game. Let him focus on 5-on-5 and PK for now.

He looks like he gets flustered too easily. Being bounced up and down the line-up and into different positions seems to have a negative affect on him. The way he's going now should be good for him.

 

[NORiculous]

Looks more like a list of players that won't be n league in a few years than anything meaningful.

What is HDCF% anyway?

 

[Cheddabombs]

What is HDCF% anyway?

High Danger (Scoring Chances) Corsi For %

Basically corsi but only counting scoring chances deemed to be high danger, around the crease/slot area

 

[Blender]

What is HDCF% anyway?

High Danger Corsi For Percentage. Devils are actually 8th in the league in it.

 

[NJDevs26]

It's not exactly an impressive list of players though, just a couple of upper echelonish forwards. So that's definitely not a stat I'm trusting on an individual player by player basis.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Yeah I don’t think that helps Zacha’s case at all

 

[MadDevil]

Quick Ray, trade for Derek Ryan!

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Look at what Sean Couturier is doing. I see Zacha being a rich mans Couturier. He is more skilled with similar, if not better hockey sense. It takes players like that longer to find their games because they can't fall back on speed when they make a mistake.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Look at what Sean Couturier is doing. I see Zacha being a rich mans Couturier. He is more skilled with similar, if not better hockey sense. It takes players like that longer to find their games because they can't fall back on speed when they make a mistake.

Good point. I wish he was having success like the other kids, but I do think he can/will figure it out eventually.

Thanks to the other kids we can afford to be patient with him.

 

[RSeen]

Couturier is significantly better than Zacha in essentially every aspect of the game. I'm not sure how one can call Zacha a rich man's Couturier even in the context of future performance.

 

[Zippy316]

Look at what Sean Couturier is doing. I see Zacha being a rich mans Couturier. He is more skilled with similar, if not better hockey sense. It takes players like that longer to find their games because they can't fall back on speed when they make a mistake.

Couturier's draft +1 one outclasses anything Zacha has ever done though. He played shutdown 3C all year for Philly.

A lot of guys like Zacha need to get settled in before they realize where they can use their skill or what they need to work on. Look at Kesler, Schiefele, or Couturier offensively.

Zacha needs to be kept where he's at and given a chance to slowly develop. He needs to learn how he wants to play to be effective and then start using his skill within that.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Couturier's draft +1 one outclasses anything Zacha has ever done though. He played shutdown 3C all year.

A lot of guys like Zacha need to get settled in before they realize where they can use their skill or what they need to work on. Look at Kesler, Schiefele, or Couturier offensively.

Zacha needs to be kept where he's at and given a chance to slowly develop. He needs to learn how he wants to play to be effective and then start using his skill within that.

It almost certainly will not happen this year. He is going to need at least another offseason to take what he learned this year and try to figure out what he wants and needs to do.