Sens of Anarchy
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- Jul 9, 2013
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Player Discussion RD Nikita Zaitsev
- Thread starter Hun
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Boat anchor of a contract, hated the trade from day one and am still perplexed at it, he's an extremely expensive 6-7 dman which is the last thing any team needs especially this one, another seeming massive whiff from the pro scouts here. Brown is a nice player but not something you shoot yourself in the foot for.
Xspyrit
DJ Dorion
Players that are not made to be defensive D-men but that are used as such will always have bad advanced stats
Zaitsev plays 22 mins a game and has close to 60 dZS% so of course it's going to be reflected
Same problem as Ceci, they are being asked to play way out of their comfort zone because they are on teams with very weak defensive depht
Zaitsev is not a "great" D-man and yes he is overpaid but one of worst D-men is silly talk.
Zaitsev plays 22 mins a game and has close to 60 dZS% so of course it's going to be reflected
Same problem as Ceci, they are being asked to play way out of their comfort zone because they are on teams with very weak defensive depht
Zaitsev is not a "great" D-man and yes he is overpaid but one of worst D-men is silly talk.
aragorn
Do The Right Thing
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I don't think it hurts the team this yr or maybe not even next yr & he should be a decent mentor for the Russian players for a couple of yrs but eventually they need to move Zaitsev which will be tough with that contract & term. I see JBD as his replacement eventually on the top pairing with Chabot because he's smart, he's good defensively & plays a very good two way game & can add some offence occasionally.
JungleBeat
Registered User
I am not convinced that contract will ever be an issue. He's signed for 3 years after this. The 3 years might well be the elc timeline for Sanderson and JBD. Hopefully both are ahead if him and certainly he'd be well compensated as a bottom pair guy, but the ELCs enable you to overpay elsewhere
Xspyrit
DJ Dorion
Worse case scenario you buy him out in the last year of his contract. And since D-men take a bit more time to come into their own than forwards, Zaitsev will act as a stop gap taking pressure off the kids, particularly since DJ likes him a lot. No worries here.
LOL @ ragging on Zaitsev. Look around the Sens d-corps and ask yourself which RD would have eaten those super tough minutes that were forced down his throat?
Zaitsev isn't a defensive stalwart. But who else was an option? Cody Goloubef? Jaros? Even before Demelo was traded, Zaitsev played a ton more minutes at EV and SH than him.
He's a f***ing placeholder on a team that has zero cap constraints. You can complain all you want about his cost relative to the internal spending structure but it's clear they don't have a huge issue with it from head office perspective. Why? Because he provides a barrier to the rest of the young roster from playing the most demoralizing minutes in the entire f***ing NHL.
He's already going to cost the team almost half of his actual salary this upcoming season because of clawbacks and escrow. In 2022-23, where you could possibly start projecting some cap constraints if everything goes well he's an easy buyout with decent cap savings.
Zaitsev isn't a defensive stalwart. But who else was an option? Cody Goloubef? Jaros? Even before Demelo was traded, Zaitsev played a ton more minutes at EV and SH than him.
He's a f***ing placeholder on a team that has zero cap constraints. You can complain all you want about his cost relative to the internal spending structure but it's clear they don't have a huge issue with it from head office perspective. Why? Because he provides a barrier to the rest of the young roster from playing the most demoralizing minutes in the entire f***ing NHL.
He's already going to cost the team almost half of his actual salary this upcoming season because of clawbacks and escrow. In 2022-23, where you could possibly start projecting some cap constraints if everything goes well he's an easy buyout with decent cap savings.
FolignoQuantumLeap
Don't Hold The Door
We could have just kept Ceci for the one year then and not had to eat all these years on his contract to help the Leafs. Its an awful contract and trade any way you try to spin it.
Pretty much this. PD knew it would be a rebuilding year and having Ceci's efforts on the ice would've helped to solidify a top pick
Sens of Anarchy
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AchtzehnBaby
Global Matador
Ceci is *without question* significantly worse than Zaitsev. There is nothing Ceci is better at than Zaitsev, as far as I'm concerned. I'm surprised that people who watched Ceci for about 400-something games would say they'd have rather kept him for a year over Zaitsev.
Also, where would that put us now? Who would play those heavy RD minutes? They go out and pay to get someone? We got a middle-six winger as a plus who has entrenched himself into this lineup as a capable, responsible 2-way forward.
Subtract Ceci, Brown and Zaitsev from next year's lineup and tell me who you replace all of them with?
FolignoQuantumLeap
Don't Hold The Door
JungleBeat
Registered User
There would be no difference in where the Sens where in the standings if they kept Ceci for one year. Both are bottom tier D.
Anybody on a 1 Mil contract can provide what Ceci, Brown and Zaitsev bring to the table (nothing).
Trying not to get into this, but that's untrue.
There's a difference between replacement level defence and Zaitsev.
But sure, go on.
Gudbranson will definitely pick up some of the heavy defensive load that Zaitsev was saddled with. Brown and Zub will be on rotation for the third pairing alongside Jaros with the possibility of Brown absorbing a small amount of Zaitsev's PK time.
If we didn't have Zaitsev, we also probably wouldn't have C. Brown.
Sweatred
Erase me
- Jan 28, 2019
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People worried about $4.5 spent on NZ who plays as a 2D while cheering for Bobby and White at $11 million putting up 2ND line AHL replacement type seasons while Boedker and Arti collect $7 in the press box and McArthur, Callahan, Gaborik types are making $15/year golfing in Florida or rolling wherever.
The Sens get more out of Z than the “forum favourites” Ryan, White, McArthur etc.
The Sens get more out of Z than the “forum favourites” Ryan, White, McArthur etc.
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Forum favourites White and Ryan?
Where have you been in the last years lol These guys are the furthest thing from favourites.
MacArthur is injured and his salary is covered by insurance as well, don't really see the logic here.
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Sweatred
Erase me
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MacArthur was paid $25 million for 16G. We don’t know how much of that EM paid out himself vs insurance. Either way, insurance is expensive too. Head injuries are hard to diagnose. We know he couldn’t play hockey but he could golf every day in Florida and showed interest in working with the League again as soon as his payments ended.
White and Ryan were paid a combined $11/year for replacement and sub replacement level seasons, or about $9 million of negative value .
My point is the $4.5 we pay Z is no where near the worst use of our money. It may have $1 million of negative value in it.
He’s the 4-5th contract on the team that I would question recently.
Ryan has been bought out, this year he's getting paid 1M$ to play for the Detroit Red Wings and signed his contract with the Sens in 2015 which is 5 years ago. He's no longer on this team, the reason being that he was longer able to contribute to the team. So you are correct that it was a bad contract, and the team felt the same way and bought him out. Fans have been calling for Ryan to be traded for YEARS. Calling him a fan favourite is just so bizzare, even fans from other teams around the league knew Sens fans didn't like Ryan. Most people are supporting him in his personal life for being an alcoholic and after all he's been through, like most normal people would. This is not to be confused, however, with Ryan being a fan favourite. This is a pretty significant miscalculation or lack of understanding.
White had an injured filled year last year but had a good first year. The contract may turn out to be bad but you're obviously jumping the gun. It wouldn't be the first time a young player has a down year, especially after injuries. The contract doesn't look good there's no doubt but unlike Zaitsev, White still has room to grow at 23. Had 8 points in the last 10 games of the season and noted he was starting to feel better after his return from injury. Nonetheless, White is not a fan favourite and has been criticized probably more than any player last season.
As for McCarthur, insurance is a sunk cost, all teams pay it and it's not something you randomly decide to pay or not to pay. He was paid fairly for the player that he was if we take out the concussion issues. He was able to produce and play well in all areas of the ice. It was perfect for the team that the insurance covered for his contract while MacArthur finally got his life back together to some degree. Although I will say one thing, if you knew anything about concussions and their effects on people you wouldn't have made that absolutely classless comment about him playing golf. I'll leave it at that...
And I would say it's controversial to say that Zaitsev is worth 3.5M right now. He would probably get 1-1.5M in FA. He brings pretty similar value to guys like Kulikov,Schenn, Bogosian who just signed for approx 1M. I'd easily take Troy Stecher for example before taking Zaitsev.
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Xspyrit
DJ Dorion
Clarke MacArthur contract was 23.25 M$, not 25 M$
And he actually scored 0 regular season goals after that new 5 years contract kicked in 2015-16 (that must be a first lol), but it was totally out of anybody's control as his career ended prematurely due to concussion issues (you'd think that every Sens fan would know that). Like Boud said, it became a sunk cost 80% covered by insurance. Everyone who has a little ounce of business experience know these kind of things are inevitable.
Ryan's extension was signed in October 2014 even if it started only in 2015-16 to relieve fan pessure because most were worried we were going to "lose him for nothing". He became overpaid but totally disagree he didn't contribute as he constantly put up over 0.5 PPGs and had that monster playoffs.
Really smart move to get him on a cheap prove yourself again deal as the Sens are still paying most of his earnings.
That's why the compensation was a really nice player in Connor Brown.
Zaitsev is already paid, he is a "stop gap shield" protecting the young D-men from the thoughest situations. He takes the beating for them. It's not the greatest job on earth but you could do a lot worse than that for 4.5 M$ a year lol. Seriously, I would feel bad for him to take a constant beating if he was paid a lot less. It's still a NHL job but it would be a bit unfair
His contract is a bit too long but a complete non-issue for now. My guess is he will eventually be bought out or traded for another type of player with that kind of salary. 4.5 isn't an incommensurable NH salary in a non-covid world.
Duclair!!!
And he actually scored 0 regular season goals after that new 5 years contract kicked in 2015-16 (that must be a first lol), but it was totally out of anybody's control as his career ended prematurely due to concussion issues (you'd think that every Sens fan would know that). Like Boud said, it became a sunk cost 80% covered by insurance. Everyone who has a little ounce of business experience know these kind of things are inevitable.
Ryan's extension was signed in October 2014 even if it started only in 2015-16 to relieve fan pessure because most were worried we were going to "lose him for nothing". He became overpaid but totally disagree he didn't contribute as he constantly put up over 0.5 PPGs and had that monster playoffs.
Really smart move to get him on a cheap prove yourself again deal as the Sens are still paying most of his earnings.
That's why the compensation was a really nice player in Connor Brown.
Zaitsev is already paid, he is a "stop gap shield" protecting the young D-men from the thoughest situations. He takes the beating for them. It's not the greatest job on earth but you could do a lot worse than that for 4.5 M$ a year lol. Seriously, I would feel bad for him to take a constant beating if he was paid a lot less. It's still a NHL job but it would be a bit unfair
His contract is a bit too long but a complete non-issue for now. My guess is he will eventually be bought out or traded for another type of player with that kind of salary. 4.5 isn't an incommensurable NH salary in a non-covid world.
Duclair!!!
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You are so wrong about Brown. The kid is big, can move quite well and is a PK upgrade. If you watch him play this year without preconceptions you will probably be thrilled at the results. He’s going to be a really nice 3rd pair D that can move up to second pair for short stretches.
FolignoQuantumLeap
Don't Hold The Door
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