Why was Zacha a top prospect?

[zharkenby]

I’ll take heat from fellow devils fans but I mean... guy has shown no upside in the nhl. Misses open nets, can’t put up points, terrible giveaways in his own end game after game.

What does he do well? Why was he supposed to be good?? His ceiling at this point is an average third liner. One of the worst draft picks we’ve ever made imo

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[Scooooooooooooot]

Big, Fast, Skilled Center who plays a solid two way game. Has not put it together yet and may never do that completely. But he has the skill and when they drafted him he was very raw. The Devils were in a bad spot with no farm system so they picked the guy who was raw with a big upside. Hes not completely lost out there and its super easy to say hes never going to be a top 6 player but I think the skills, vision, shot power are all there just has to get it going. Rantanen and a million other studs going after him makes it look far worse.

 

[Icebreakers]

I think barzal would have been the other consideration for that pick. Don't think they had Rantanen etc on their radar at 6. They took the big guy over the more skilled smaller guy. Zacha had a lot of pre draft hype in the year before, but so did barzal.

 

[zharkenby]

I think barzal would have been the other consideration for that pick. Don't think they had Rantanen etc on their radar at 6. They took the big guy over the more skilled smaller guy. Zacha had a lot of pre draft hype in the year before, but so did barzal.

You just stated the obvious lol, I was asking how he was ever viewed as a player than can excel in the league.

 

[Strait2thecup]

Big, Fast, Skilled Center who plays a solid two way game. Has not put it together yet and may never do that completely. But he has the skill and when they drafted him he was very raw. The Devils were in a bad spot with no farm system so they picked the guy who was raw with a big upside. Hes not completely lost out there and its super easy to say hes never going to be a top 6 player but I think the skills, vision, shot power are all there just has to get it going. Rantanen and a million other studs going after him makes it look far worse.

Not so sure about the vision....

 

[Icebreakers]

You just stated the obvious lol, I was asking how he was ever viewed as a player than can excel in the league.

I just told you he was riding off pre draft hype.

 

[Knies iT]

He was seen as one of the highest upside players in the draft at the time, but was extremely raw. His size/power combo created a bit of a mirage that made him look more dominant against teenagers.

His production was a red flag, as was his IQ, but he could absolutely take-over at will, which reminded people of Malkin.

 

[Acallabeth]

Large, physical, good shot, good skater, defensively responsible... playing against smaller, inferior kids.

Then again, guy's just 21. I understand it's crazy, but he may not be done developing yet.

 

[Strait2thecup]

Large, physical, good shot, good skater, defensively responsible... playing against smaller, inferior kids.

Then again, guy's just 21. I understand it's crazy, but he may not be done developing yet.

Problem is he didn’t even put up a points game against those smaller inferior kids.

 

[Kamiccolo]

I'm not convinced that the pick itself was bad, I am convinced the development was poor and out of character for the organization.

He went back to junior and improved on the year but still had a ways to go development wise. Then on the last game of the year they called him up and he went beast mode on a tanking Toronto team playing their last game of the year.

The following year they kept him in the NHL despite him not really being ready and despite him having flaws to his game. He didn't get the minutes to develop properly and would apparently "figure it out" as he went.

And he hasn't really improved from there. Had they sent him back to junior another year, or sent him to their AHL team to work on some things and get better I think he would have developed more in line with expectations.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I’ll take heat from fellow devils fans but I mean... guy has shown no upside in the nhl. Misses open nets, can’t put up points, terrible giveaways in his own end game after game.

What does he do well? Why was he supposed to be good?? His ceiling at this point is an average third liner. One of the worst draft picks we’ve ever made imo

Preaching to the choir here. Some devils fans are extremely sensitive about our awful drafting, but it was a terrible pick at the time and is still a terrible pick. He never should have been rated anywhere near as high as he was - Crouse too.

Devils and Panthers really blew it with their high picks in the past draft in a decade...

Unfortunately, the same appears to be true with the McLeod pick. I got **** on for hating on both of those picks when they were made.

Guess what? I was ****ing right.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

The pick at the time reminded me of Shero's pick when he was with the Pens when he took the "raw, big bodied, defensively responsible but with only average production" player at 2nd overall in Jordan Staal over guys like Toews, Backstrom, and Kessel.

I wasn't a fan of the pick because of who was on the board still at the time, and banking so much on "raw player with limited actual production" ahead of those players is never something I'm in favor of.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Preaching to the choir here. Some devils fans are extremely sensitive about our awful drafting, but it was a terrible pick at the time and is still a terrible pick. He never should have been rated anywhere near as high as he was - Crouse too.

Devils and Panthers really blew it with their high picks in the past draft in a decade...

Unfortunately, the same appears to be true with the McLeod pick. I got **** on for hating on both of those picks when they were made.

Guess what? I was ****ing right.

But aren't you also the dude who thinks the devils would be better off with Larsson than Hall right now.

You do have some good insights otherwise though.

 

[Wooren]

That being said, Zacha is a bust. Future 4th liner/Europe.

 

[Judas Tavares]

With how good the top 10 of this draft is looking, plus Barzal who went far too late, this is a tough miss for the Devils.

 

[Kamiccolo]

With how good the top 10 of this draft is looking, plus Barzal who went far too late, this is a tough miss for the Devils.

There are a few standouts in the top 15 of that draft that are huge whiffs given who went right around them

Arizona - Strome at 3 (Don't have to even go into who was there)

Devils - Zacha at 6 (Provorov, Werenski, Ratanen in the next bunch of picks)

Florida - Crouse at 11

Stars - Guryanov at 12

Then the Bruins infamous 3 picks in a row.

Then we saw a ton of talent go right after

Barzal
Chabot
Boeser
Konecny
Juulson

Harder to pick on the picks after 15 because it becomes a crap shoot but those 4 teams whiffed hard on some good talent and Boston it is controversial if they did well or not.

 

[Tripod]

Preaching to the choir here. Some devils fans are extremely sensitive about our awful drafting, but it was a terrible pick at the time and is still a terrible pick. He never should have been rated anywhere near as high as he was - Crouse too.

Devils and Panthers really blew it with their high picks in the past draft in a decade...

Unfortunately, the same appears to be true with the McLeod pick. I got **** on for hating on both of those picks when they were made.

Guess what? I was ****ing right.

I remember on draft day after Zacha was taken, most of the NJ fans reactions were not good ones. I was checking each teams threads to see if they were happy/pissed about their pick....and NJ fans were certainly not happy.

But I thought he started playing better last year? I remember talking with a few NJ fans about Patrick and Zacha and how both of them were playing better, but the points were not showing on the scoresheet. It was in January.

No progress since then?

 

[zharkenby]

Preaching to the choir here. Some devils fans are extremely sensitive about our awful drafting, but it was a terrible pick at the time and is still a terrible pick. He never should have been rated anywhere near as high as he was - Crouse too.

Devils and Panthers really blew it with their high picks in the past draft in a decade...

Unfortunately, the same appears to be true with the McLeod pick. I got **** on for hating on both of those picks when they were made.

Guess what? I was ****ing right.

I’m 100000% with you I get torn apart on our board. McLeod was a bad one from the get go. No offensive upside at all and looks like shit in the ahl, and zacha is a legitimately bad player. Just don’t see it for either

 

[zharkenby]

I remember on draft day after Zacha was taken, most of the NJ fans reactions were not good ones. I was checking each teams threads to see if they were happy/pissed about their pick....and NJ fans were certainly not happy.

But I thought he started playing better last year? I remember talking with a few NJ fans about Patrick and Zacha and how both of them were playing better, but the points were not showing on the scoresheet. It was in January.

No progress since then?

Personally did not think he was good at any point last year, sure he was getting opportunities, but he was still missing them lol

 

[Daximus]

I never really saw much from Zacha in his draft year. A solid two-way player but I don't think I had him in the top 15. When the Devils pick came up and I thought for sure they are taking Provorov or Werenski. It's another one of those picks where you just don't draft for position you take BPA. Maybe they were just going with Bobs list? He had Zacha at 6. ISS had him at 10, Future considerations had him at 15, Damien Kox had him at 8, Button had him at 24, THW had him at 7, Pronman had him at 11, THN had him at 10.

MyNHLDraft.com had a consensus ranking of him at 11.

 

[Tripod]

Took a look and could only find the end of the Flyers thread when the Zacha pick happened:

Yessssss

Zacha!!!

YES! Provorov is ours

Ha ha...yes!

Wowowowowowwoowowowowowowowowow

Not provorov!!!! Omg yessss

Zacha.

We will get Provorov!!!

Yessssssss. come on provorov!!!!

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

Big players are overvalued every draft.

 

[zharkenby]

Took a look and could only find the end of the Flyers thread when the Zacha pick happened:

Yessssss

Zacha!!!

YES! Provorov is ours

Ha ha...yes!

Wowowowowowwoowowowowowowowowow

Not provorov!!!! Omg yessss

Zacha.

We will get Provorov!!!

Yessssssss. come on provorov!!!!

In all fairness it was pretty obvious the devils were not going D in that draft....... like very very obvious. We were all aware the pick was going to be zacha, rantanen, Crouse or barzal. Our young D looked promising at the time and we didn’t have one solid forward prospect in the system.

 

[RememberTheName]

Some people straight up deny that Zacha is good at anything, which is completely asinine

Look, 0 points in 7 games looks bad. In our first 2 games, he was BY FAR our best player. I think in our 6-0 win over Washington he had like 4-5 opportunities where he either got robbed or just missed a wide open net. Dude is crazy snakebitten. Also, lets not forget that he is an absolute beast defensively, one of the best pkers in the entire NHL. So yea, he has not shown as much as we have hoped. But let's not pretend that every good thing about his game or every good moment he has does not exist/

 

[Wooren]

Some people straight up deny that Zacha is good at anything, which is completely asinine

Look, 0 points in 7 games looks bad. In our first 2 games, he was BY FAR our best player. I think in our 6-0 win over Washington he had like 4-5 opportunities where he either got robbed or just missed a wide open net. Dude is crazy snakebitten. Also, lets not forget that he is an absolute beast defensively, one of the best pkers in the entire NHL. So yea, he has not shown as much as we have hoped. But let's not pretend that every good thing about his game or every good moment he has does not exist/

Either he is the unluckiest player in the NHL who has been snakebitten for three year (and still going) or he is just a terrible finisher. Zacha always finds a unique way how to whiff on a wide open net.