I guess I wouldn't be surprised if some fans basically never give Ostapchuk a chance because he was the guy who came back for Zetterlund, but that's not really fair to him. I just hope that people realize that in a few years, when this team is hopefully getting good, Zetterlund would (hopefully) place below the top six skill forwards on the Sharks roster...and Ostapchuk hopefully will have improved his overall game to be a useful bottom six piece.
We'll see how he develops, but let's remember he's played these games as a 21-year-old who probably needed more seasoning in the AHL. Instead he's been playing mostly with guys like Noah Gregor and struggling--but there absolutely is room for growth there, so we just have to hope that he can keep going over these next few years. It's just that the comparison to Zetterlund is going to always look unfavorable because he's not a guy who's going to score to that level.
But if he becomes a whipping boy as a 21/22 year old simply because he's not Zetterlund and not yet what we want, that would really suck and feel unfair. (I get not liking the trade, but that doesn't mean holding it against Ostapchuk, you know?)