Speculation: Is Trading Del Zotto a good idea?

[Gospel of Prospal]

Don't forget about Korpikoski


In a weird way, I kind of miss Zherdev. He brought some excitement and swagger. I would've liked to see him on a line with Zuccarello.

 

[smoneil]

Girardi and Del Zotto really have nothing to do with each other. If G goes in trade* Del Zotto isn't going to be able to provide coverage. The kid does a lot of things well, but playing the right side of a pair ain't one of them.

Trading DZ hinges on what you see happening with Marc Staal. If Staal can regain his pre-injury form (which he hasn't come close to this season), then MDZ is a valuable chip buried behind two better players. If there is concern about Staal and his future (and at this point, I honestly think there should be), then you just can't afford to move MDZ. Moore can't handle 2nd pair minutes. Skjei is too many years away.



*and I keep going back and forth on whether or not I think that's a good idea. I don't think this team is a contender, and Girardi can bring back a boatload, but G is also a great guy to have.

 

[RangerBoy]

The Rangers are going to trade Del Zotto when they find the right deal. Did Newport request a trade? Why are they meeting with Sather? AV and DZ aren't on the same page.

 

[JHS]

no, no it is not. another young player with upside that the orginization is going to give up on way to early.....he's is 23 years old people......23


For more information about giving up too early on quality D men, See: Zubov, Sergi

However, this is the New York Ranger organization that we are talking about, so it is expected that he will be traded for, what will be more than likely, a useless player, that will never perform to expectations......, meanwhile DZ will move on to anther team, find his game and turn himself into a quality offensive defenseman in the National Hockey Leauge.

Comparing Del Zotto to Zubov is giving Del Zotto an tremendous compliment. In the 93-94 season Zubov he had 89 points! The comparison does not extend beyond the playing style in that they were both young defenseman who appeared to be unable to play defensive hockey and focused on offense. Even if you only compare point production, which is not always the complete picture, Del Zotto is about half as good as Zubov was at comparable age and experience levels!

Trade Del Zotto immediately. He will have no value shortly and clearly is not a favrorite of the current coaches. He's a turnover machine who makes mindless plays all the time. Unless the Rangers acquire a veteran d man to be his partner to cover up all his mistakes, he will consistently be a defense liability who does not produce enough points to make up for his mistakes.

 

[eco's bones]

with all due respect, you can only assume that. since DZ has another 15 years to prove himself, you can not say that he will not become an elite offensive defenseman. I do agree that its not probable, but you can not say it with certainty.

Point is, he's 23 and you have to use young players in the cap era. A couple years from now, he could be great........i'd be happy with "good".

Zubov did that as a 23 year old--in his second season over from Russian. He hardly spoke English. He didn't have five seasons of good hockey some of the time-bad hockey some of the time. He had a real hard shot as well.

Del Zotto is never going to sniff those kinds of numbers. These days those numbers would be a real reach for any of Pietrangelo, Doughty, Weber, Subban, Letang to ever sniff. The only one really in the running for those kinds of numbers is Erik Karlsson--no one else.

Personally between Girardi and DZ I'd hate to see Girardi go--I can understand the need to move him if they can't sign him which looks the most likely scenario. His next contract is the problem. As well DZ's next contract is a problem and a main reason why I'd move him. If he takes us to arbitration and lands a $4 mil per contract coming off the $2.55 mil he's making now I'm going to be pissed. He's not earned a raise off of what he's done the last two seasons. He has not been able to secure a top 4 D position at the NHL level with the Rangers. He had but has more or less lost his primary slot running our pwp. His numbers are not going up--they're going down. He's average defensively. How long are we going to talk about upside with him--until he's UFA?

The Rangers should get two or three assets back from dealing Girardi--at least one asset from dealing DZ. I don't expect they're all going to be forwards. IMO one will be or will turn out to be (if a draft pick) a d-man. As well Rangers picked up Conor Allen last year as a college free agent. I expect the Rangers will be cutting loose a number of contracts of players in the AHL and apart from maybe Troy Donnay have no one graduating from the CHL, the Colleges or European leagues to the Rangers professional organization next year--meaning I expect them to sign a few College and CHL free agents this summer--one of whom might be Colin Suellentrop a right shooting D playing in the OHL who they were rumored to be after a few months ago. And then there's free agency--the UFA kind. The Rangers are going to have a hell of a lot harder time finding a guy to replace Girardi's minutes than they are going to have finding a second/third pairing tweener to fill Del Zotto's minutes--considering they're already overloaded now at the left D position and with Brady Skjei--arguably their best D prospect on the way within the next 2-3 years.

 

[Off Sides]

What is the alternative?

To qualify him and then either offer him a contract that is what he could get in arbitration or let him take them to arbitration and hope for the best?

I'd assume he would get right around the 3.5M magic number in arbitration. If he gets less they have to sign him. If he gets more they have to choose if he is worth it and sign that deal or walk away.

Any arbitration award would be for two years since he is more than one year away from UFA status, so that two year deal would leave him a UFA at the end of it. Then what? What if he is still the same player we see for those two years, they are not going to sign him again anyway and they regret having him for those two years?

Do they really want MDZ on the team? Seems to me the Rangers system requires players who can read the game, Does MDZ read the game at a high level?

From there what exactly does he bring to the team that can not be had cheaper and probably better?

He's not very good on the power play with his choices. He does not have a hard shot. He does not do a great job of rushing the puck. His only redeeming value is he is about average defensively and he can make some nice passes at times when he decides to take the extra step and make the play happen instead of just throwing the puck up ice.

Del Zotto was a benefactor of two things in his career to this point. First being Gaborik. He would literally give the puck to Gaborik and from there Gaborik would do something with the puck that gave MDZ points. It's not all that much different than Prucha with Jagr, although I still think MDZ is a better player than Prucha was.

The 2nd thing that benefited him was Tort using him as the only defense on the power play for two seasons. He got his points mostly from that coaching decision. Even Torts himself said he messed up by not playing McD on the power play, but really his choices were limited considering the ice time McD already was getting.

If they can get something back for MDZ, and lower the ideas about what it will be, they should take it. He just does not fit and he's going to get more expensive in his next contract.

If his value is low now, to other teams and to the Rangers, what will his value be on a more expensive deal?

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

Look, I'm not happy with the play Del Zotto is bringing forth but is it such a good idea to trade him?

Look at Fedor Tyutin, we dumped him and he is outplaying all our defensemen in play as well as scoring ( he is leagues behind Mac Truck though)

AV plays DZ on the wrong side, of course he's going to suck. HE ISN'T AN RD.

My fear is he is going to have more great seasons like he did before the lockout.

I would hesitate to say he's had "great seasons". Promising seasons, yes. But not great.

The biggest issue is the coach doesn't seem to have any faith in him.

 

[Miamipuck]

Meh you can't compare Zubov to MDZ that's like comparing a Mercedes AMG to a Ford escort. Any idiot beside Neil Smith and if rumors were true, Messier, saw that Zuboz was something special offensively and coupled with Leetch on the powerplay was even better than that. I couldn't care less his physical game at the time was less than stellar. That trade made me puke the moment I heard it, hell, it still does.

Oh well water under the bridge but the one reason that for the rest of his life and if there is a heaven/hell, the eternity he resides there, Neil Smith should be kicked in the nuts on a daily basis.

 

[NYROrtsFan]

I'd trade him...

He always seems mentally behind during the play and I don't think that ever changes if it hasn't already.

He certainly has moments that get you really excited, but they don't happen enough.

Part of running a team is figuring out which guys aren't going to develop and then trading them off while they still have value.

 

[OverTheCap]

I've always had a lot of patience with DZ, but at this point I think he needs to be traded. Seems like AV and DZ got off on the wrong foot from the get go. It's a shame because he'll probably put up 40 points again elsewhere.

 

[NewLife]

Don't forget about Korpikoski


In a weird way, I kind of miss Zherdev. He brought some excitement and swagger. I would've liked to see him on a line with Zuccarello.

Oh me too! Although I usually like athletes in most sport that got some flair in their game even if the might be lazy and being the opposite from a team players in times. Soft euro crush I guess.

 

[Thesensation19*]

I think too many fans blame DZ for the wrong things. Puck pops over his stick, boo. Misses the net, Boo. On the ice, no where near the puck and their is a goal... BOOOOOO

Nicknames and the wrong titles have grown for him. Sadly.

Personally I think a type of player that DZ is, is rare. Doesnt come around all the time. Maybe 1-2 a year and even those players have baggage or issues or need time to grow. Or very very weak and not intense or tough.

So I like DZ, but he has some issues like being out of position on defense or jumping up to hit/attack at the wrong times. That comes w experience and I wouldnt mind to grow him more. Hes still very young.

But, when u hear his name being done w trade rumors and now Girardi is mentioned then I question what we really want in our roster. I much rather have Girardi. 10x over.

So I like DZ, I do. But I think hes become expandable.
I would really really like him in a trade to CBJ for Jack Johnson. I think we need a guy like Johnson. He can be a real differ maker for us

 

[wolfgaze]

Tyutin was 5x better than MDZ when he was traded. He should have never been traded in the first place.

Tyutin was unquestionably inconsistent and wasn't demonstrating any steady improvement/maturation to his game in the 2 seasons leading up to his trade. To say he was '5x' better than MDZ is of course quite the exaggerration and inaccurate....

 

[wolfgaze]

Rangers cannot afford to lose both Girardi and MDZ from their blueline so they better figure out what they're doing with which one of them and quickly....

 

[True Blue]

The deal that sent Norstrom to LA really sucked.

There is also Mark Tinordi

 

[BarbaraAlphanse]

Rangers cannot afford to lose both Girardi and MDZ from their blueline so they better figure out what they're doing with which one of them and quickly....

DZ doesn't really matter in terms of Girardi. He's not a defensively responsible defenseman. The two don't correlate. They can keep both and the defense can still look as bad as it has or they can trade both and the defense won't look much worse.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

I would hesitate to say he's had "great seasons". Promising seasons, yes. But not great.

The biggest issue is the coach doesn't seem to have any faith in him.

Im not a big MDZ fan, but its just bizarre that guys like J. Moore, Falk, and Allen escape ridicule and MDZ is the one that received scorn from the coach. Not a way to handle the team's 5th best defenseman when theres no suitable replacements.

 

[Vickers8]

Im not a big MDZ fan, but its just bizarre that guys like J. Moore, Falk, and Allen escape ridicule and MDZ is the one that received scorn from the coach. Not a way to handle the team's 5th best defenseman when theres no suitable replacements.

Allen played well, what did he do wrong?

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

Im not a big MDZ fan, but its just bizarre that guys like J. Moore, Falk, and Allen escape ridicule and MDZ is the one that received scorn from the coach. Not a way to handle the team's 5th best defenseman when theres no suitable replacements.

I honestly have no feel whatsoever for this coach.

 

[BarbaraAlphanse]

Allen played well, what did he do wrong?

He never played a game in the NHL. That's what he did wrong.

Look at how AV has handled McI, Miller, and Fast. All have short stints and then down to the AHL no matter how they played.

 

[Ice Hockey]

in a word, yes.

 

[Raspewtin]

He never played a game in the NHL. That's what he did wrong.

Look at how AV has handled McI, Miller, and Fast. All have short stints and then down to the AHL no matter how they played.

Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

 

[offdacrossbar]

del zotto makes no difference for this team whatsoever. connor allen or even mcilrath can fill in some of his minutes.

del zotto is the least productive "key" player on the team.

34 2 7 9 -6 that kinda line for an offensive dman is a joke.

problem is, the organization has so diminished his value and his confidence, were stuck with him as he is. to move him now, means we basically gave him away.

a mentally damaged, slow footed, weak shooting, bonehead play making, "offensive dman" who cant hit the net.

the more he plays, the more he seems to suck. not a good situation at all.

 

[Bardof425*]

so, what gm in there right mind is going to offer us a BETTER defenseman for a WORSE defenseman?

Better and worse is in the eyes of the beholder. Deals are made for alot of reasons; cap space, attempts to get younger; dealing from a strength to patch a weakness....So we may find a team that is convinced that DZ has been misused is full of potential and since he is just 23 is worth more than an older defenseman who has reached full potential whatever that is.

This would never happen but what if the Devils decided that DZ was going to be a star once out of the Garden and sent us Andy Greene? Would you do that deal for a better defenseman?

 

[Cliffy1814]

For those who perhaps study this closer than I:

It seems (my perception) that DZ struggles greatly when he asked to play the right side, while he is semi competentnt defensively and seems to have much more confidence playing the left side.

Accurate statement? Over simplification?

If there is a shred of truth to that, then he probably will have more value elsewhere than he will here. Somebody will see him as a solid 2nd pair LHD and play him in that role without the constant left/right shuffling he has endured here.