Philadelphia Flyers: Please Stay Away From Nikita Zaitsev

The Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman has requested to be moved by the team, and the Philadelphia Flyers should stay away at all costs.

Bob McKenzie of TSN reported Thursday afternoon that Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev requested for a trade away from the Canadian hockey club due to “personal reasons.” Leafs General Manager Kyle Dubas said he’ll try to give the Moscow blue-liner a “fresh start” and grant his request to be moved. Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher stated his desire to add a veteran defenseman this offseason, but Zaitsev should not be the guy he goes out and acquires.

The 6’2, right-handed shooting d-man is extremely limited offensively. Zaitsev was able to post 36 points in his rookie season with Toronto but has netted a mere 13 and 14 in the following two years. Those two point totals combined don’t even match his rookie campaign and while it can be argued that he’s received a heavy amount of Defensive Zone Start percentages while with the Maple Leafs, Zaitsev had a higher Offensive Zone Start percentage in his sophomore year than when he was a rookie, showing the regression in his game on offense due to the lower amount of points.

Toronto also was a more dangerous team in the offensive zone with Zaitsev off of the ice at 5-on-5. Looking at the Leafs unblocked shot rates-for on HockeyViz.com, their threat level increased on offense with Zaitsev off of the sheet. The shots generated when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 weren’t terrible but then again, look at the talent he was playing with. If Fletcher is going to trade for a defenseman to likely play alongside Ivan Provorov on the top pair, I’d like that player to have better offensive production than Zaitsev’s.

For a guy who’s known as more of a “defensive defenseman”, Zaitsev isn’t a shutdown guy by any means. Going back to the unblocked shot rate charts at 5-vs-5, this time focusing on shots-against, the undrafted blue-liner did help Toronto negate shots from directly in front of the net, but they still allowed a substantial rate from the high-slot and mid-to-lower circles with Zaitsev playing. Those chances are still considered dangerous and give opposing offenses a better opportunity to score. The Maple Leafs were better on the penalty kill without Zaitsev, as well, posting a threat level of -19% with the three-year vet off of the kill than the -4% while he was on.

The only way I’d consider taking Zaitsev and his 4.5 million over five-year contract is if Restricted Free Agent forward Kasperi Kapanen were included and even then, I’d still probably say no. Kapanen would fill Philadelphia’s third-line right-wing role to a tee, but I doubt Dubas would want to include him to such a deal unless the return was worth it. The Flyers have players like Carter Hart, Nolan Patrick, and Oskar Lindblom to pay in the future, too, and taking on Zaitsev’s contract would hinder their ability to re-sign all of those talents.

Zaitsev’s negatives simply outweigh the positives, and for that reason, Fletcher must stay away from getting duped into taking the right-handed defenseman.