Rick Dhaliwal is making good use of his phone during the lead up to July 1st, tirelessly calling NHL agents to get the scoop on potential Canucks signings. His latest scoop: the Canucks are apparently the leading candidates to sign free agent defenceman Michael Del Zotto.
Del Zotto is a polarizing player, capable of putting up points at even-strength and on the power play, but disastrous in the defensive zone, so much so that he earned the not-so-fond nickname of DelZaster. He’s coming off two mediocre, injury-tinged years in Philadelphia, where he managed just 31 points in 103 games. The year prior to that, he outscored those two seasons combined, putting up 32 points in 64 games.
The 27-year-old is a good candidate to sign and flip at the trade deadline, so would make a lot of sense for the Canucks on a one-year deal. That would require the Canucks to put Del Zotto in a position to succeed in order to pump up his value to potential suitors.
When has Del Zotto been most successful? It’s a pretty simple recipe: sheltered zone starts and time on the powerplay.
Del Zotto’s best season by Goals Above Replacement (GAR) was his rookie year with the Rangers, when he put up 37 points. In that season, he was worth 11.94 goals over a replacement-level defenceman. That may not sound like much, but that put him in the top-10 among defencemen in 2009-10.
Even in that season, however, he had a negative impact defensively at even-strength. He just made up for it with even-strength offence, powerplay production, and drawing penalties while staying out of the box himself.
Of his shifts that started with a faceoff in 2009-10, just 26.4% were in the defensive zone and 35% in the offensive zone. No other Rangers defenceman started less in the defensive zone and more in the offensive zone and only a handful of defencemen around the league did so.
Del Zotto also got heavy usage on the powerplay that season, leading the Rangers in ice time with the man advantage and rewarding that usage with 22 powerplay points. That said, he has never matched that number, despite playing primarily on the first powerplay unit for the Rangers in his two subsequent seasons. In Philadelphia, however, he was on the second unit.
If the Canucks want to try something different on the powerplay, and Lord knows their powerplay could use some tweaking, trying Del Zotto on the first unit couldn’t hurt. With his skating and ability to distribute the puck, he could be a nice addition and make himself more attractive to teams looking for defensive depth heading into the playoffs.
Of course, all of this depends on Del Zotto being interested in a short-term deal in Vancouver. He might be looking for more term and, with a thin free agent market for defencemen, he might be able to find it. The Canucks could go up to two years and look to move him in the second year of his contract, but shouldn’t go any longer than that.
If the Canucks are looking for a short-term replacement for Luca Sbisa, then Del Zotto isn’t a bad option. He’s basically just as bad defensively as Sbisa, with the same penchant for terrible turnovers, but he boasts better underlying possession numbers and has much higher upside offensively. While far from a perfect player, Del Zotto might make sense for the rebuilding Canucks.
He would also have a positive impact on their Flow/60 and percentage of killer Instagram accounts.
