The Pavel Zacha mistake

lomiller1

Registered User
Jan 13, 2015
6,409
2,966
Guess NJ shouldn’t have taken Hischier either...
?
Hischier put up 1.5 PPG in his draft year, which is solid at the very least. Zacha was at 0.92, much lower in spite of being the biggest strongest and fastest kid on the ice in most games. He should have been overpowering the CHL with these tools alone, but he wasn't able to.
 

Passchendaele

Registered User
Dec 11, 2006
7,731
1,148
?
Hischier put up 1.5 PPG in his draft year, which is solid at the very least. Zacha was at 0.92, much lower in spite of being the biggest strongest and fastest kid on the ice in most games. He should have been overpowering the CHL with these tools alone, but he wasn't able to.
Yup.

Questionable when a kid going 6th overall 6'3 215 can't dominate his peers.
Looked like a bad pick in 2015 and still does.
 
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lomiller1

Registered User
Jan 13, 2015
6,409
2,966
Ryan Strome vastly outscored Mark Scheifele.

Productivity doesn’t guarantee success, but lack of productivity should be a huge red flag you need to answer for when selecting a player. It doesn't mean you don't take them, if you understand why the scoring isn't there. Eg Scheifele was on the lower end of the productive scale for where he was picked but his 1.14 PPG was still a lot better than Zacha. The key is that even at the time you could see WHY Scheifele wasn’t putting up huge numbers in his draft year.

He was playing on a really bad team. He’d only committed to hockey as his primary support fairly recently having split his time between hockey and lacrosse until he was 16. The biggest thing IMO is that while he was 6’3" he only weighed 170 pounds. Unlike Zacha, he couldn’t simply overpower smaller players, in fact he was usually the one being overpowered. His skating stance also needed some work, he was a little to upright contributing to a lack of strength on his skates.

These were all easily fixable. Going from 170 lbs to 210 lbs takes some time, but you knew it was going to happen just because he was so motivated. The thing is that in spite for this he still produced quite well on a bad team and because he wasn’t doing it with physical tools he had to have been using skill and hockey IQ to succeed. Move forward 4 years and he’s developed physically and is now big strong and fast to go along with the skill and hockey IQ and you have something special.
 
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NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
95,340
59,233
Ottawa, ON
What a deep draft.

It would be frustrating to have drafted one of the few who aren't already home-run talents.

Well, you could be Boston I suppose.
 

Oneiro

Registered User
Mar 28, 2013
9,438
11,002
You can torch Conte for a lot of things, and yes, most NJ fans wanted Barzal, but Zacha is not a bust - he's an NHL caliber player. Hynes and Shero want him to score and he's down in the AHL to get his scoring touch going. But his defense is good - at worst, he's a solid bottom six player. The reality is your 2C has to score so I get the frustration from the staff and the fans.

But how about you make a thread talking about Severson, Wood and Coleman, all of whom are big pieces of the team and all of whom are Conte picks?
 

Nickmo82

Registered User
Mar 31, 2012
5,992
4,194
Japan
It could be worse. The Rangers might as well not have bothered attending/picking any players that draft year. Thus far 0 NHL games played by any Rangers draft pick. Only guy likely to change that is Hurricanes property thanks to the dreadful Eric Staal trade.

Zacha will be a servicable bottom-6 guy at worst, right? And NJD got Hischier to lessen the pain.
 

Atas2000

Registered User
Jan 18, 2011
13,601
3,269
Former Devils scouting director David Conte was around for 3 Cups and 5 Finals appearances with NJ.
He deserves a lot of credit, especially in the 90s.

But late in his tenure, his drafting was a complete disaster.

Specifically his choice of Pavel Zacha at 6th overall in 2015.

PZ was demoted to the Devils AHL team (Binghamton) last week after getting no points in the team's first 10 games.

His lack of production so far in the NHL has been perplexing, alarming and extremely disappointing.

PZ has good NHL size, skates well and seems to have the tools to be an effective NHL 2nd liner, at worst 3rd liner.

Now, at 6th overall, we were expecting (for good reason) a 1st line forward for many years.

The 2015 draft was very deep, the first round has produced many players who are having excellent NHL careers already.

Prior to that draft, the Devils board voted for Barzal for our 6th overall pick.
Many others preferred Provorov, some wanted Connor, Rantanan or Werenski, along with Zacha.

Over 3 years later, it's stunning to see how poorly Zacha has done so far compared to his peers in the 2015 draft.
2015 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

Only Strome can possibly be considered a bigger disappointment at this point in time from that draft.

The Devils are suffering the consequences of whiffing on this pick right now, they desperately need a 2nd line center (or even wing) that can consistently produce goals/points.

Or a 1st pairing left-handed defenseman (Provorov/Werenski)

Even late first rounders such as Konecny and Boeser have been much better let alone 2nd rounder Aho.

Ray Shero and his hand-picked scouting director, Paul Castron, have done a solid job in rebuilding the organization's prospect pool in the last few years, although the McLeod pick remains to be seen.

But the Zacha Mistake is haunting the club right now and will for many years to come.
It is hurting to a franchise like the Devils to have a miss with a high pick, but those things happen. There's no guarantee at the draft.
 

Devils090

Registered User
Feb 16, 2014
10,868
8,017
We also took Mackenzie Blackwood and Blake Speers the next two rounds

What a disgrace of a draft that was
 

Riptide

Registered User
Dec 29, 2011
38,887
6,520
Yukon
This post reads like it was written by someone who plays GM mode in EA, saves before the draft so they can see all the best players and then load the predraft save so they can pick them. Its almost as if you have no real clue how drafting works.

This might be valid if it weren't for the fact that there were many many questions raised about Zacha before he was drafted.
 

Ace Card Bedard

Back in Black, Red, and White
Feb 11, 2012
8,721
3,551
In 2004 the Blackhawks took Cam Barker at 3rd overall
A year later they took Jack Skille at 7th overall

Don't worry, they turned out ok even after two terrible busts.
(their next two picks were Toews and Kane)
 

NJ DevLolz

The Many Saints of Newark
Sep 30, 2017
4,565
5,398
No they're not.

The only NHL players they drafted under Lou post lockout were Zajac, Parise, Henrique, Larsson, Kinkaid and Severson.
Wood, Coleman.

Kinkaid, Greene, and Clarkson were very good college UFAs
 

seadawg

Registered User
Sep 22, 2008
904
451
You can go through every team's draft history and find numerous examples of where they drafted Player A (who turned into a bust) instead of Player B (who turned into a star player), so it is a bit unfair to pick on New Jersey for the Zacha selection. What is more concerning, if you are a New Jersey fan, is that generally speaking their overall prospect pool isn't very impressive and hasn't been for a very long time. Compared to a lot of other teams, New Jersey has had very few draft picks turn into regular NHLers, let alone star players.
 

DudeWhereIsMakar

Bergevin sent me an offer sheet
Apr 25, 2014
15,596
6,618
Winnipeg
I wanted him to be part of the Taylor Hall deal along with a first round pick (which would've been 1st overall, ironically).
 

Albus Dumbledore

Master of Death
Mar 28, 2015
9,007
2,670
What a deep draft.

It would be frustrating to have drafted one of the few who aren't already home-run talents.

Well, you could be Boston I suppose.
Boston got Brandon carlo and debrusk in the first two rounds?
Not as good as some players but certainly better then some other hits.
 

93LEAFS

Registered User
Nov 7, 2009
33,841
20,898
Toronto
Former Devils scouting director David Conte was around for 3 Cups and 5 Finals appearances with NJ.
He deserves a lot of credit, especially in the 90s.

But late in his tenure, his drafting was a complete disaster.

Specifically his choice of Pavel Zacha at 6th overall in 2015.

PZ was demoted to the Devils AHL team (Binghamton) last week after getting no points in the team's first 10 games.

His lack of production so far in the NHL has been perplexing, alarming and extremely disappointing.

PZ has good NHL size, skates well and seems to have the tools to be an effective NHL 2nd liner, at worst 3rd liner.

Now, at 6th overall, we were expecting (for good reason) a 1st line forward for many years.

The 2015 draft was very deep, the first round has produced many players who are having excellent NHL careers already.

Prior to that draft, the Devils board voted for Barzal for our 6th overall pick.
Many others preferred Provorov, some wanted Connor, Rantanan or Werenski, along with Zacha.

Over 3 years later, it's stunning to see how poorly Zacha has done so far compared to his peers in the 2015 draft.
2015 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

Only Strome can possibly be considered a bigger disappointment at this point in time from that draft.

The Devils are suffering the consequences of whiffing on this pick right now, they desperately need a 2nd line center (or even wing) that can consistently produce goals/points.

Or a 1st pairing left-handed defenseman (Provorov/Werenski)

Even late first rounders such as Konecny and Boeser have been much better let alone 2nd rounder Aho.

Ray Shero and his hand-picked scouting director, Paul Castron, have done a solid job in rebuilding the organization's prospect pool in the last few years, although the McLeod pick remains to be seen.

But the Zacha Mistake is haunting the club right now and will for many years to come.
His production at the lower levels never really screamed first liner. The expectation he was a lock to be a first liner seemed out of touch with his actual OHL performance.
 

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