The summer of 2024 is set to be dramatic, with Vezina Trophy goaltenders and top young scorers headlining a very active trade market. The Anaheim Ducks may be positioning themselves as the team of the summer amid all of this, as the Ducks’ star forward and former top-10 pick. Trevor Zegras Once again he faces trade rumors. Trade speculation is nothing new for the former USNTDP standout, who faced a lot of uncertainty at the start of the season: He missed both training camp and preseason action while awaiting a new contract. He eventually came to terms with a three-year, $17.2 million bridge contract, although Zegras would end up missing most of the season with a broken ankle. He returned from an 11-week absence in March and ultimately totaled 31 games on the year, scoring just 15 points. But despite the bad year, Zegras’ age, his plus rating, and his cheap contract offer exceptional and incredibly lucrative value on the trade market.
Zegras’ scoring advantage appears to have been obscured by a down year this season, but there is no doubting his place among the league’s best young scorers. Zegras recorded an impressive 23 goals and 61 points in 75 games as a rookie in 2021-22, being named runner-up in Moritz Seider2022 Calder Trophy To start, Zegras proved consistent in his sophomore year, scoring 65 points and again scoring 23 goals in 81 games. Combined with his modest scoring this year, Zegras has totaled 55 goals and 154 points in his first 211 games. That equates to a pace of 0.72 points per game, putting Zegras among the game’s most potent young scorers and ahead of players like Seth Jarvis, lucas raymondand Cole Caufield.
And unlike many young players, Zegras offers the flexibility to play both center and wing at the NHL level, and Anaheim cited adapting Zegras to center as a key priority in his early development and time in the AHL. He was frequently used in the middle during his first two years in the NHL, although he posted a dismal faceoff percentage of 40.6. The arrival of Leo Carlsson this season was enough to push Zegras back to the wing, where he struggled to work off the boards in a Ducks system based more on physicality than finesse. His difficulties at the faceoff spot make him a tough sell as a full-time center, although his flexibility makes him a match for even more teams.
Zegras’ reputation may be fractious, but he’s been among the elite scoring talents since breaking into the NTDP’s notorious 2019 lineup. With so much consistency between his first two seasons, it seems much more likely that his poor year was more the result of a shaky start to the year, marred by protracted contract negotiations and injuries, than an indication that he has veered off course. . At an agile 23, Zegras is just beginning his career, and has already carved out a consistent top-six role and a strong scoring pace before many players earn an everyday role in the lineup. His offensive upside has vindicated Zegras’ Draft spot, as he ranks fourth among the 2019 class in NHL scoring, but also makes him substantially harder to value on the trade market. There are simply no previous trades involving a player as young or as high-scoring as Zegras.
In a way, it goes back to Larry Murphyfrom the Los Angeles Kings to the Washington Capitals in 1983. While the trade differs in many ways: Murphy is most notably a high-scoring defenseman and a player significantly closer to the league’s best at the time of his move. But there are also many similarities. Murphy also had a top-10 draft pedigree, vindicated by his stellar scoring, and was moved before his 24th birthday. In that case, the Kings received a strong top-four defenseman. Brian Engblom and Ken Houston as his retirement approached. The Zegras trade rumors are happening more than four decades later, so there’s not much to glean from Murphy’s move, although precedent might suggest the Ducks may need to settle for impactful depth in any move that includes a such a young star
The Ducks will find a much more present and realistic orientation in the trades of Martin Necas and Nikolaj Ehlers, two other powerful scorers on the commercial market, although Necas, the younger of the two, is still three years older than Zegras. Speculation about what the pair of wingers could earn is over, and Carolina is rumored to be interested in top prospects, although a trade of the pair has even been mentioned as a possibility. With Zegras under contract for the next two seasons and expiring as a restricted free agent, Anaheim has plenty of time to wait and see how the Necas and Ehlers situations play out. Whatever deal they make for their young star, it will undoubtedly be a blockbuster as it puts together the pieces to propel Anaheim into a new era, one led by Carlsson, decked out in new jerseys and, hopefully, destined to the playoff consistency the Ducks were once known for. .
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