Toronto Maple Leafs: Give Nikita Zaitsev One More Season
By Hunter Eitel
Nikita Zaitsev’s second season with the Toronto Maple Leafs was a tumultuous one.
Playing in 60 games, Zaitsev recorded only 13 points and posted a -3.74% relative Corsi, the worst on the the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lets face it, those are not good numbers for a player making $4.5 million per year.
But guys, Nikita Zaitsev has only played two seasons in the NHL, we shouldn’t give up on him after one bad season, considering he was close to a 40 point right handed defenseman in his first year (an NHL rarity).
Now Wilbert Timmermans wrote an argument for trading Zaitsev, mentioning his poor contract and that he is the “Achilles’ heel” of the defense. James Tanner also wrote of trading the 26-year old, citing Zaitsev’s poor play and sub-par defensive game, going as far as to call him terrible.
Allow me to jump to the defense of the Russian defenseman!
Give Nikita A Chance
Yes his play last season didn’t inspire confidence, but the defense has far more issues than just Zaitsev, such as playing Ron Hainsey on the top pairing. Deciding to trade him after two years would be a mistake the Leafs should not make, since trading him would result in acquiring a player of equal or lesser skill and value and a package deal could lose other valuable players, prospects and/or picks. In fact trading him now would cause the Leafs to miss out on the promise Zaitsev showed in his first season.
Signing a one-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016, Nikita Zaitsev looked like a great fit in his first season. Putting up 36 points, 12 of them on the power play, averaging 22:01 minutes of ice time along with 176 hits , playing in all 82 games to boot. That strong season resulted in the signing of a 7-year, $31.5 million contract, averaging $4.5 million per season. That yearly cost seemed like a bargain, then his second season happened and his contract now looks like a burden.
It’s important to remember Zaitsev broke his foot and missed 17 games last year. Before his injury, he played 34 games and put up 10 points, 64 hits and 94 blocked shots in that time. After his injury, along with missing 5 more games due to an illness, he played in 26 games and only contributed 3 points, 49 hits, and 40 blocked shots. Before suffering a catastrophic injury, Zaitsev was on pace for a season similar to his debut season with the Leafs.
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Zaitsev showed enough talent in his first year that the Leafs gave him a seven year deal, and I don’t think we should write him off just because he followed that up with a bad year. Especially not when the team is so weak on the right side, where Zaitsev plays.
This year will be the year that tips the scale for him. With his foot and health getting better and an entire offseason for him to improve in the areas he needs to (Puck control, watching the turnovers), Zaitsev has a chance to return to form and prove all of us wrong. We should let Zaitsev don the blue and white for one more season before we jump to conclusions. We may appreciate the results once April rolls around.