Speculation: What ever happened to Zaitsev?

[Duke16]

Good player, but doesn't fit with any of our D for some reason. The problem is that he is being asked to be the shut-down guy to Gardiner or Rielly when he himself needs a Hainsey type.

While I did cite this as the reason for his poor play, I do believe his contract is terrible. For what he brings he will always be overpaid and the term is ridiculous. This guy could be on the bottom pair in 2 years if Liljegren hits and we acquire another D.

 

[shortfuze]

Although older then a normal player. I believe he is having a bit of a sophomore slump. Plus I think his injuries are still bothering him.

 

[LeafFever]

The guy is playing hurt. Can people have some patience on here?

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Kinda concerned about our inability to have a proper breakout and nullify pressure situations without having the goalie bail us out

It is both a defense and offense problem.

 

[Liminality]

The guy is playing hurt. Can people have some patience on here?

It was a broken foot, not something you just brush off. His game is around his skating, you take some of that ability away and this is what you get.
I still think he needs to recover for me to give up on him.

 

[therealkoho]

The defenseman on pace for nearly 50 points is the problem? Right now it's Zaitsev.

I think people expect a flawless defenseman but the best defenseman in the NHL routinely get beaten, it seems like the moment Gardiner makes a mistake there is a segment of Leaf fans that jumps up to say "LOOK IT'S GARDINER MAKING A MISTAKE! I KNEW HE WAS BAD!"

Trust me, we'll miss him if he goes, and he likely will be at some point because of the depth we have at LD in Rielly, Gardiner, Dermott and Borgman and the cost of them.

the problem with Gardiner isn't "look he made a mistake!"

the problem is and always has been "look he made the same mistake again!"

 

[willyjones]

the foot injury and confidence are the issues to me right now. His game is all about his skating with a broken foot hindering his mobility he looks like a lost puppy out there. I think/hope he rounds into form for this years playoffs. He is a guy who gets in his own head a lot you can tell by the way he gets down on himself, some guys go through the motions but with Z you can see it really affects him. Once he has his mobility and some swagger back he will be fine.

 

[PuckMagi]

I don't like the Martin or Hyman contract.

I really like the Kadri, Rielly, Brown, and Andersen contracts.

Gardiner and JVR's contracts were awesome, but are expiring too soon.

Marleau and Hainsey were great contracts because we had the cap space the for this year and next and we needed to spend it somehow. Good pickups. Seems like the Marleau contract is structured where we can easily trade Marleau if we need to, but we also have the option of keeping him for his 3rd year since he looks pretty good after game 1.

I kind of wish we got Zaitsev for a bit cheaper. This is the only contract I'm a bit nervous about. It's possible that guys like Dermott, Liljegren, Borgman, etc. end up passing him in the depth chart (with Gardiner and Rielly already ahead of him). Could end up being expensive for our 5th or 6th best defender. But at the moment, still looking like a pretty good contract. Though there is some risk here.

But this is a huge improvement compared to a few years ago. If Martin and Hyman are the only bad contracts, then we're in pretty good shape. I don't think any of our contracts are really negative value. Martin and Hyman may have slightly negative value, but they're close enough to fair value.

^^^ I made this comment on Oct. 6th, 2017

 

[LeafGrief]

I don't think he's particularly bad in his own zone. He could certainly benefit from having a more stable partner than the boom/bust of Gardiner, but every single defenseman in the freaking league would rather have Vlasic as their partner. This stability alone means that I'm not too worried about his contract. $4.5m for a guy who can skate well and plays reasonable defense sounds fine to me. It's not brilliant if that's all that he's bringing, but it's absolutely not an issue. His only real issue that's been bothering me has been how he handles the puck. He just bangs it off the glass like Polak and it costs us our transitions. He can skate well and knows how to make decent passes, but instead he just throws it off the glass and it's on the stick of their defense and coming back our way. If he can sort out the transition aspect of his game, he'll be outstanding.

SMH at the Gardiner haters. We played 2 periods without him and the team was an absolute nightmare trying to move the puck up the ice. The guy is PPG for the last 15 games and the haters come back out when he coughs up the puck to Evgeni Malkin. Whoop de f***ing do, Drew f***ing Doughty coughs the puck up too.

 

[Chief keefe]

Don Cherry wasn't a big fan of this guy from day one.

k.... but Don only likes good ol Canadian boys...

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

He's pretty bad but if Gardiner could find his groove I wouldn't rule out Zaitsev either. Right now he needs to be sheltered in a big way though

 

[Bullseye]

Zaitsev is finding his maturity. Injuries are hard to overcome at the height of the season. Look at Rielly last year, that high ankle sprain changed his strong season. Zaitsev needs to calm down a bit. He is frenetic out at there at times.

 

[Menzinger]

Gardiner is second in the NHL in giveaways this season, and by far the worst on the Leafs for it. Points don't help when you're averaging 2-3 giveaways a game...

He’s got a lot of giveaways because he always has the puck - a nice quality when you’re trying to stop the other team from scoring, no?

 

[Polaris1010]

Guess we are watching different hockey games. The only thing Zaitzev is fighting is the puck.

Babcock puts him out on the ice to close out games when the other team pulls its goalie.

Does he gets beat? Sure he does, like everyone else.

The biggest mistake bonehead play by a Leafs defenseman last night, was a play that Detroit did not score on.

One guy, took the puck, behind the icing line, skated right into the crease area trying to skate it out, and he got stick checked, and there was a mini scramble with the puck loose right in front of the next, but the puck bounced the right way for Rielly and nothing came out of that.

What was he doing? But who cares, Leafs win!

I really do like the Maple Leafs defense as a group. The flaws in their game, just is not as bad as folks on this forum make them out to be.

IMHO, the top 4 is an above average group.

 

[Zybalto]

Was fine last night and has been merely OK on the season.

The guy eats tough minutes every night and really helps our back end.

I think it shows how good our team is that some are worried about Zaitsev so much.....kind of like the collective rage after Gards has a couple of off games in a row.

The D has been looking better and better as the year has gone on and I'm intrigued what's going to happen at the TDL. Another solid pickup could push this team into one of the favorites.

 

[TorontoIslander]

Classic sophomore slump. Zaits will be fine.

 

[Brobust]

He broke his foot.

 

[FreeBird]

As many have stated he is being asked to play with Gardiner. I believe that it was the second goal Pens scored when Gardiner tried to throw the puck down the middle. Zaitsev called for the pass behind the net and instead Gardiner passed the puck to the Pens player and bang in the back of the net.

When you don’t know what your partner is going to do or trust their actions you play scared and that is not the way to play.

And Kadri didn't stay with Malkin, of course that's nothing new

 

[Ryan Michaels]

Think it's partly just a bad season for him but would love to have him as the main piece in a trade for Doughty/Tanev

Yeah I bet. Guys been overrated the whole time, his underlying numbers have been terrible and he drags down whoever he plays with. See Gardiner's career year last year and Rielly's this year.

 

[TIGERCOOL]

My biggest problem with Zaits is that he handles the puck like it's a hand grenade in his own zone. That to me is confidence. A guy in his second NHL year on a smaller ice surface/faster paced game than he's ever experienced gets a little slack. He's got the tools. Communication will improve as well as he settles in here.

If he's still like this at 27 it was a terrible contract, but he has flashes of brilliance on both sides of the puck that encourage me

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Zaitsev is a good player that is struggling. We all should know this. He is in a terrible struggle right now after the injury.

He should be coming around good in a few weeks.

 

[Zybalto]

A little food for thought.....

The Leafs are 28-15-1 with Zaitsev in the lineup this year......12 games above .500

They are 8-5-4 without him....a game below .500

Smallish sample size I know but Zaitsev may have a bigger effect on the team than some are giving him credit for.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

A little food for thought.....

The Leafs are 28-15-1 with Zaitsev in the lineup this year......12 games above .500

They are 8-5-4 without him....a game below .500

Smallish sample size I know but Zaitsev may have a bigger effect on the team than some are giving him credit for.

He is definitely in a rough spot presently. He is still good mostly even though.

 

[BigGulpsEh]

He is definitely in a rough spot presently. He is still good mostly even though.

I think it’s the fact both he and Gardiner are struggling together so it’s amplified everything

 

[ironrhcp]

I dont think hes ever looked good. Never been a fan. Seems to bring down every d partner they put him with. Has terrible +/- every year (for what its worth) and cant make a pass if his life depended on it, Has a decent shot but since hes not on the PP this year we dont really see it much.